Us Lovers

Saw a nice little movie called "The Lovers" staring Debora Winger and Tracy Letts which tells the story of a marriage gone stale and the husband and wife juggling  affairs  It was billed as a comedy but I didn't view it as such. I thought it was a character study of  people in a life no longer filled with spark and passion but of dullness and boredom. Some people who saw this movie didn't like it as they thought it was  slow moving and filled with characters that were totally unlikeable. I thought it captured life as it is reminding me of characters I knew or heard about.  Verisimilitude is the noun I would use to describe the way I feel about this movie. Perhaps it hits to close to home for those who disagree with my critique.

The pace of the movie captures the true pace of life, moving slowly for the most part until some crisis happens and then the pace quickens until the crisis is resolved in some manner and then life returns to its normal pace. The main characters seem to have a life of cheating on each other without any explanation as to when it happened or why it happened. They aren't bad people just very fragile ones who can't seem to get hold of their emotions. I know of a woman who began cheating shortly after she thought he husband cheated on her. She kept the affair up even as she was in other torrid ones.

I know of a married couple who had affairs shortly after they took their marriage vows. They experienced only a few affairs one relationship took more than a decade and of course just like the characters in the movie they promised their lovers that they would divorce and be free to marry but when push came to shove they broke the affair and they are coupled to this day, still not very happy.

The characters in the movie were captivated by sex and the feelings of pleasure sexual behaviour gave but they never truly experienced sexual feelings that included love, a sharing of bodies that gave themselves entirely one to the other. Therefore in all actuality all they ever experienced is lusty love making but not love building. They became bored after some time and needed new charges to re-liven their batteries. Unfortunately these good but misguided people will never find happiness unless and until they find the elixir of life which is a blending of the physical and spiritual which is human love.

If you get a chance see the movie, maybe on demand if you miss it at the cinema. But don't judge the characters just see them as flawed human beings as we all are but happily not in the same way.