Without going into detail about my parent's divorce, there were a lot of similarities that I saw in the movie that sort of let me relive and re-digest some of my feelings about that whole ordeal. Maybe in a cathartic sense? It was funny and sad how you saw the breakdown of how things got once the lawyer aspect came in. The seeds of doubt of your soon to be ex-husband/wife. The paranoia that she/he is setting up your kid to be against you whether real or imagined. The bringing up of a person's dirty laundry whether you wanted to or not as the court process is inherently ugly. And then at the very end the process of reconciliation. That's not something to look over. The idea of reconciling or forgiving. I have a strong relationship with one parent and a rather fractured one with the other. For reasons that still hurt me today. But with time I've been able to heal more. Our relationship has somewhat started to mend, though I'm not sure how closely I want to let that person to me anymore. I'm not ready to forgive. Yet ever so slowly I'm ready to reconcile. That's something you see at the end of the movie. It's a nice note to go out on. Things might never go back to the way they were when they were "good", but maybe things can work out in a way where they don't hurt as much as they currently do or have.
Some scenes I really enjoyed were the yelling scene in the husband's new LA home. It's one of those things where there is some honest anger and then also the mix of "hey this is going too far and now you are going on pure emotion instead of trying to hear out one another". The scene where the husband accidentally cuts his had. Oh man, how tense was the part where he is trying to take care of his injury. I thought the water pipe to the sink was going to explode. There was some great sound editing there to raise the tension before he's finally able to wrap his damn hand. That was great. And then finally I don't know if it was one scene or it happened in two, but the husband's old lawyer that he ends up dropping eventually says something like "this divorce process will come to pass". It's not like it's some wise words, but it stands out to me cause I know exactly what he meant. The process does suck whether you want it to or not. Or maybe there is the off chance that some divorces go almost without any bumps.
Lastly, not so much a scene, but the genral stress of the husband trying to juggle time and money. If he had the time and money a lot this would have been a lot easier for him to handle in this situation. But he has to keep up with his play that's about to go on Broadway and at the same time manage time with his sun who is on the other side of the country and also find the time for all the lawyer stuff. And that aspect of how he tries to manage all of that puts stress actually on the whole family even though none of them are happy about that. Would almost be a non-issue if this was happening all in one city, but with one parent being in LA and one being in NYC it really puts so much more stress on the divorce process.
Hooo I don't even know what to say with the lawyers. it was a joy to watch that play out for all the wrong reasons. Oh yeah they have their moments of humanity, but they are so expensive and then they are like hyenas when it comes to the fight. I just happen to recall the situation where one of my parents lawyers essentially preyed on the vulnerability of my one parent at the time. You aren't necessarily fully rational during the process and that whole acting really chummy with your client made my skin crawl cause I saw it happen myself. And that lawyer ain't a friend haha. Again, this isn't me calling out all lawyers, just that I've seen the good the bad the ugly. We get that in this movie too.
Finally, I don't think I'd ever want to watch this movie with either of my parents
