Q:Build a movie plot around this: What does Oliver accidentally run over? Barbara's cat
A:
Lawyer Gavin D'Amato is in his office discussing a divorce case with a client. Noticing the man's determination to divorce his wife, Gavin decides to tell him the story of one of his clients, a personal friend of his.Oliver Rose, a student at Harvard Law School, meets Barbara at an auction, where they bid on the same antique. Oliver chats Barbara up and they become friends. When Barbara misses her ferry home, the two end up spending the night together at a local hotel. Eventually the two marry and have two children, Josh and Carolyn. Over the years, the Roses grow richer, and Barbara finds an old mansion whose owner has recently died, purchases it and devotes her time to making a home there. However, cracks seem to be forming in the family. As Oliver becomes a successful partner in his law firm, Barbara, who was a doting and loving wife early in the marriage, appears to grow restless in her life with Oliver, and begins to dislike him immensely.Oliver, for his part, cannot understand what he has done to earn Barbara's contempt, despite his controlling, self-centered, and generally dismissive behavior toward her. When Oliver believes he is suffering a heart attack, (actually a hiatal hernia) the day after an argument, Barbara (after her initial shock and concern) realizes she felt a sense of relief that he might be dead. She tells him so, adding that she no longer loves him and wants a divorce and Oliver accepts. Feeling that it might not be wise to represent himself, Oliver hires Gavin as his legal counsel on a retainer.Tension arises between Oliver and Barbara during negotiations when it becomes clear that she wants the house and everything in it. When Barbara's lawyer uses Oliver's final love note to her (which he had written in the hospital) as leverage against him in their legal battle, she refuses to back down. Barbara initially throws Oliver out of the house, but he moves back in after discovering a loophole in the divorce that allows him to stay. As a result, Barbara immediately begins plotting to...