Product Description

AFTER 15 YEARS OF MARRIAGE, FREE-SPIRITED BEN AND HIS WIFE KATIE FACE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS OF THEIR MARRIAGE. DO THEY END THEIR STORY OR BEGINS A NEW CHAPTER? BONUS FEATURES: SPOTLIGHT ON LOCATION, FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR ROB REINER, PRODUCTION NOTES, CAST AND FILMMAKERS AND MORE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10693 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 2000-02-15
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
Director Rob Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... was about a relationship beginning; The Story of Us is about a relationship possibly coming to an end. Bruce Willis plays a comedy writer who chafes at what he sees as his wife's lack of spontaneity; Michelle Pfeiffer, who creates crossword puzzles, stews over what she sees as her husband's irresponsibility. The arc of their separation is interspliced with glimpses and scenes from their marriage--a combination of high points (the proposal, the births of their two children), low points (screaming fights), and the in-between (sessions with marriage counselors, moments in bed staring at the TV). Reiner indicates the passage of time by Willis and Pfeiffer's various hairstyles, and they occasionally let their hair act for them, but at other points their performances are sincere and deeply felt. The sheer power of the themes--the inevitability of conflict in a relationship, the necessity and difficulty of growth--give the movie a degree of emotional force, and there's no doubt that everyone who's gone through a difficult period in their marriage (which is just about every married couple) will find something to connect with. However, there isn't a lot of chemistry between the two leads. In one sequence Willis and Pfeiffer go to Venice to rekindle their old spark and find themselves hounded by another couple, the Kirbys from Cleveland, who are loud, crass, boring, and oblivious. Nonetheless, the Kirbys have a buoyancy that the glossy and elegant stars never quite manage; if The Story of Us had been the story of them, it might have been a better story to watch. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
Rob Reiner, usually one of the most nimble and versatile of directors, loses his footing with this tale of declining love. The marriage of Ben and Katie Jordan (Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer) has been sliding steadily downward for fifteen years, although, for those of us in the audience, it feels like a whole lot longer. The movie begins with pained bickering and ends with an unconvincing reconciliation in a parking lot, during which the Jordans agree to forget their differences and go out for Chinese food. The bulk of the movie is more of the same mood swings, dotted with flashbacks to the early days, when love was fresh and Katie was blow-dried to resemble a Charlie's Angel. Reiner tries numerous devices to enliven the proceedings, including musical montages, dirty lunch talk between the Jordans and their friends (played by Julie Hagerty, Rita Wilson, Paul Reiser, and Reiner himself), and-always a sign of last resort-a picture-book trip to Venice. Willis and Pfeiffer, who should be flinty enough to strike sparks off each other, look glum and stony about the whole affair. All in all, a compelling argument for divorce. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

When Harry Left Sally...
Occasionally shallow, occasionally moving, 'The Story of Us' is a rollercoaster ride through a couple's relationship, focusing on the myriad moments that defined their love, hate, and indifference. Structurally, the film is almost a clone of Rob Reiner's earlier 'When Harry Met Sally', complete with actor-to-audience monologues, flashforwards and flashbacks, and wisecracking supporting characters who are occasionally more interesting than the leads.

The subject, a marriage that is unravelling, does not necessarily make for a great theatre date movie (I can't see somebody saying, "Hey, baby, let's go see 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf' to get in 'the mood'"), but on video, the film's many subtleties and moods can be truly appreciated.

The two leads, Bruce Willis, as a laid-back, disorganized comedy writer, and Michelle Pfeiffer, as a tightly-wound writer of crossword puzzles, have a lot of charm, but give uneven performances. One wishes that Willis' intensity and energy in the restaurant scene with Rob Reiner and Rita Wilson, or Pfeiffer's, in the climactic speech at the film's conclusion, could have been maintained through the entire film. There are a few too many moments where the actors coast, for the film to be truly great.

The high point of the film comes near the conclusion, when Pfeiffer flashes back through a montage of the major moments of her marriage. Until this sequence, the relationship doesn't have an emotional core, something to really make us sympathize with the couple. Reiner depends heavily on the stars' charisma to involve us, but the nature of the story works against this. This isn't a knock at Willis and Pfeiffer; I'm not sure Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan could have pulled it off, either!

The supporting cast is very good, particularly Reiner and Wilson (she's making a career of playing wise-cracking friends to neurotic women in big films!), Paul Reisner and Julie Hagerty (nice to see her back, she looks marvellous!), and Tim Matheson, (who manages to make a divorced, lonely dentist, trying to connect, not come across as his character in 'Animal House'.) Watch, also, for a funny cameo by Betty White, Red Buttons, Jayne Meadows, and Tom Poston, literally manifesting the line about six people being in a married couple's bed.

'The Story of Us' is not as good a film as it might have been, but it does offer some excellent moments, and the upbeat ending offers hope that, through understanding, relationships do not have to self-destruct.

This isn't a bad message to pass along!

Too close to home
A suprizingly stinging movie to those who have been divorced or who have had marital troubles.

So what's not to like about Bruce Willis and Michele Pfeiffer ideally mated in a movie? Well, dispite the fact that they are beautiful film stars, they are portrayed as a man and a woman with unfortunately normal problems that hit pretty much on target to myself and my wife (both second marriages).

He is wild eyed and spontaneous, she is preoccupied with the car not having wiper fluid. He likes sex with as the mood strikes, she wants to make sure that they haven't forgotten to put tooth fairy quarters under the pillows. I could go on and on, but if you have been in a long term relationship, this will hit you hard somewhere, because even the beautiful people with lots of money have pretty much the exact same kind of problems keeping things working right, man and woman wise.

Would have been 5 stars with a divorce at the end, but after 90 minutes of fighting, we get a last second syrupy ending. You can feel it coming, but still worth seeing.

Think of the title: "beautiful people act out the fight we just had yesterday".

Recommended for adults only, kids will yawn and newlyweds will remark "this could never happen to us".

The Story of "All" of Us
There's an underlying sadness that permeates this story of a marriage in trouble after fifteen years and two children that is so readily and immediately discernible that initially it becomes difficult to proceed. And you quickly realize that it's because "The Story of Us," directed by Rob Reiner, is indeed a story about loss, which is something that affects everyone in some way or another, at one time or another, and depending upon your personal frame of reference and experience, it's a story that is going to affect you on any number of levels. Because loss comes in many forms; sometimes it leaves nothing more than a blip on the surface of your Moon, while at other times it leaves a gaping crater on the landscape of your World, and whichever it is in your case, this film is going to address it and perhaps make you revisit a time or place that maybe you've locked away in the dim recesses of your memory for better or worse. One thing is certain, this film is going to make you take pause and reflect for a moment or two. Because "Us," anyway you slice it, is a film about you and me.

Reflection is the key word here, for Reiner has crafted a film that is steeped in it; it's the way the characters involved play through the drama of their immediate lives and attempt to get on with it. And it becomes an almost voyeuristic journey as you watch two people attempting to discover just what went wrong with their love, and not only when, but why. Katie Jordan (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Ben Jordan (Bruce Willis) had it all at one time, but something happened; something in the fifteen years between the merging of two lives into one, during which they brought two children into the world and knew true happiness, and the realization that things had changed suddenly. Or, perhaps, not so suddenly; and it's almost uncomfortable to be a part of it, observing from the sidelines and understanding what the principals involved simply can't seem to comprehend.

It's the little things that are doing them in, and they just don't see it. The main element being the inability to see themselves through the eyes of the other. And it's not that they're self-centered by any means, it just a matter of instinctively wanting to maintain the autonomy that makes them unique, which in the beginning was what attracted them to one another. It's a conundrum, and it's universal. It's a matter of two people needing to reach that point-- which according to the individuals involved is going to vary greatly-- at which they can step outside of themselves and truly align their spirit with that of their significant other. Some may call it unconditional love, but in reality it's something that goes beyond even that. It's like discovering the meaning of life, or the true meaning of love. And for some, it's something that unfortunately may forever fall just beyond their ability to grasp.

A dramatic film with comedic overtones-- inasmuch as life itself is often funny, even at the most inopportune times-- Reiner takes something of a "When Harry Met Sally" approach with it, which initially doesn't seem to work; after all, this is decidedly not a romantic comedy. But as the story unfolds you begin to realize that Reiner knows exactly what he's doing, because in retrospect, this is the way it goes in real life. Things may be disintegrating internally, but life goes on; where the good times and laughter prevailed before, it remains, undaunted by the strife it fails to recognize in it's midst. So, in the end, you have to give Reiner credit for having his finger on the pulse of reality, which at the beginning of the film comes across as somewhat pretentious, but by the end makes perfect sense and works beautifully in the telling of this story.

Michelle Pfeiffer turns in a heartfelt performance as Katie, proving once again what a gifted actor she truly is. Watching Katie, you know exactly what she is feeling and why, and Pfeiffer allows you to become emotionally involved to the point that you want to intervene and tell her you know what the problem is and how she can fix it. Her Katie is a good person, a loving wife and mother, and you desperately want things to work out for her. And it's frustrating to have to sit on the sidelines and be unable to help. Which says something about the caliber of her performance. It's that reality she brings to the character that draws you in so intimately, and it's one of the strengths of the film.

Another strong point is the performance of Bruce Willis, who as Ben continues to shed that tough guy, "Die Hard" persona and emerge as an extremely capable actor with a range that is expanding with every movie he makes, which he's demonstrated in such films as "Unbreakable" and "The Sixth Sense." Suffice to say that he's come a long way since his "Moonlighting" days.

The supporting cast includes Colleen Rennison (Erin), Jake Sandvig (Josh), Rita Wilson (Rachel), Rob Reiner (Stan), Julie Hagerty (Lisa), Tim Matheson (Marty), Red Buttons (Arnie), Jayne Meadows (Dot), Betty White (Lillian) and Tom Poston (Harry). Ultimately a satisfying experience, "The Story of Us" will touch some nerves and may reawaken some disconcerting feelings in many who see it, but like life, it's an emotional journey worth taking. It's a "Stop and smell the roses" kind of film, but without any maudlin sentimentality or melodramatics. Well acted and presented, it's a film that is definitely worth a look.