Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy and Theo: successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo's career nosedives while Ivy's own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites.
Rated 3.5 / 5 from 2 logs on Katalog
had me laughing throughout, Coleman and Cumberbatch are just so witty and charming. It’s definitely absurdist throughout, caricaturising what in reality is only an undertone into extremes. ||raising children differently here escalates to athlete 13 year olds that never stop running, one spouse’s ego cursing the other’s success which turns him into a resentful child, their friends who therapy speak themselves into very public displays of an open marriage, and ultimately the resentment turning into hating each other so much that they literally try to kill each other.|| it’s great because both the love and the hate is in constant flux and at odds with each other. It’s quite a chaotic ride
All stars for Olivia Coleman, who is absolute treasure, and her chemistry with Benedict Cumberbatch. It felt like this movie was written specifically with them in mind and I’m not sure it would have worked well with anyone else. The two of them are fantastic and it had a lot of funny moments, especially if you don’t mind cringe humour. It also suffers from that self-aware, therapy-style communication that seems to have seeped into screenplays of all recent releases, that bothered me, as always. Somewhat related, I noticed that the subtitles at my cinema were not great, which made me think about how difficult it must be to translate a comedy. And yes, it is a comedy, but under the surface it’s a pretty bleak view on marriage, too. The situation they are in may be realistic, for some. There are plenty of marriages falling apart and turning abusive because of fragile egos and buried frustrations. But based on all other characters around the main couple, the movie seems to be implying that, regardless of your issues, not only there is no perfect long-lasting marriage, but there isn’t a decent one either. Everyone has some resentment towards their spouse and you’ll be miserable, but at least you’ll be miserable with someone you once liked. The movie is executing this idea with conviction, and in that it was successful. I don’t agree with it at all, but it didn’t actively bother me while I was watching it. My one takeaway is that feeling deprived of something and endangered because of success of others, especially those closest to you, must be the ultimate curse. I’d say it’s a fun watch unless you’re going through the same shit as they are. But maybe even then someone could find it comforting, people be like that.
