Do you root for Barabara or Oliver? - Oliver for me.
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Z_cm — 11 years ago(March 11, 2015 07:28 PM)
I think you're not supposed to side with either of them. It's a movie about divorce and what not to do when it happens. If anything, I side with Danny DeVito's character: if you can't reach an agreement, it's time to compromise.
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lrdcharlton — 10 years ago(May 14, 2015 09:57 PM)
How can you side with her when he has no clue how she felt, and then resorts to extreme measures against him. He thought she was happy and then when he really notices her dissatisfaction he flat out asks her what the problem is, and dosent give him an answer until she asked for a divorcce not giving him a chance to change. And if you recall Barbra was the first one to be aggressive.
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LukeLovesFilm28 — 10 years ago(December 06, 2015 01:30 PM)
Exactly. How is he supposed to know she's so unhappy if she doesn't voice her feelings and concerns about the marriage? He's "dug in" to his work, trying to make the money to pay for everything. He's blinded by duty and ambition. But, I never got the sense that he was unwilling to hear her out when it came to their relationship.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Forget the tone. He's actually trying to get to the root of the problem before it gets worse.
When she's calling him, beep face" because he was a little rude to her at dinner, he gave in and accepted that he was acting like a jerk. Did Barbara ever show that she regretted anything that happened to Oliver? Did she ever show that she cared? No. In fact, she tried to kill or seriously wound him numerous times.
But, of course, she has every right to treat him anyway she wants. All the effort he put into making such a great life him and his family doesn't really matter at all. He is an oppressive male. -
pullman1881 — 10 years ago(November 14, 2015 05:11 PM)
I think they're both lunatics and love the fact that neither gave inI was going to say "particularly Barbara" but then realized that's not true. Had either one capitulated, it would have been a different movie and wouldn't be nearly as great as it is. I never sided with either one because I didn't really want either to win. I even loved the end, when he reaches over and touches her and she disdainfully throws is hand off. That's the way it had to end.
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lh_lh82 — 10 years ago(December 19, 2015 05:22 PM)
Oliver's a controlling bully from early on. He volunteers his wife to "perform" for his bosses, then humiliates her when she doesn't perform as perfectly as he demands. He's threatened by her attempts to develop herself professionally, throws her cat around, tries to dictate her decisions for starting her own business, but doesn't make the effort to read her contracts when she asks his opinion on them. He's disrespectful. Eventually someone is going to object or possibly retaliate against treatment like that, and when Barbara does, Oliver becomes even more childish. Of course, at that point, they both go entirely over the top. But I sympathized more with Barbara because of the condescending way Oliver treated her.
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lizcarlo87 — 10 years ago(December 28, 2015 12:31 PM)
I don't side with either. She did communicate her unhappiness in the beginning about the dinner party when he cut her off. He made excuses for it and dismissed her felling's. I'm sure he has done that to her a lot of times throughout their marriage over the years. When someone does that to some people they internalize with that particular person, because they know their felling's will just get dismissed. He would not have cared about her felling's.
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doubl3 — 9 years ago(April 21, 2016 05:22 AM)
Anyone siding with Barbara I would be scared to know in real life. The husband did nothing horrible and she was physically hitting him, giving him zero reason for wanting the divorce, using his kind gesture of a note against him, etc. It sadly just seemed like realism to me, with the woman feeling entitled to hit men and break his stuff, etc Only thing he did wrong up tp that point was he was kind of an ass, which is no grounds for how she acted.
So anyone in here saying Barbara I would have to think would be scary IRL, to think that her physical abuse and destroying property was ok because.. he occasionally talked in a rude tone. Oh noes, so deserving of a woman punching you and breaking your stuff. -
tigerofwu — 9 years ago(April 26, 2016 07:03 AM)
Agreed! Barbara is a cold hearted witch. Nobody is perfect and that is true of Oliver. But the fact that she uses his death note against him is absolutely heartless. He even said he would of given her the house had she not used it against him. I believe him. Because he continually tries to make ammends and shows love for her right up to his dying breath. She shows none. Barbara is truly a sociopath. Siding with her is appauling.
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leilani-kyle — 9 years ago(August 28, 2016 02:16 AM)
I completely agree with you and I'm a woman. I was appalled by her actions time and time again the entire movie and I also feel like I would never want to personally know anyone who would actually side with her. It blows my mind.
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IheartCali5882 — 9 years ago(May 30, 2016 02:01 AM)
I'm a married woman, yet I'd have to side with Oliver. Yes he was all the things she accuses him of. No argument there. However if you're in a marriage, instead of letting your resentment fester to the point of detesting the sight of your spouse and feeling relieved at the thought of their death, why not bring your issues to them at the beginning? A smart ass remark here and there is not bringing the issue into the open. She should have sat him down ( as he attempted to do with her later) and told him in no uncertain terms that she was starting to have doubts about their relationship. Tell him how he makes her feel. Ask him to go to counseling. Don't just sit there and scowl behind his back, seething and silently feeding your anger. It's clear he was oblivious to his own behavior. She owed it to him to at least try to change his ways before she decided that she wanted nothing more to do with him. That's not how marriage works.
It's almost as if she wanted to let that anger and resentment stew and accumulate to the point of no return. She knew he genuinely loved her but she never even gave him a chance to fix what he was doing wrong because she barely communicated with him aside from snide remarks about his flaws.
He was totally self-centered and belittling. But he was also in love with her enough to want to do anything to make her happy. She went about this totally wrong. -
lrdcharlton — 9 years ago(June 03, 2016 06:41 PM)
What made it worse, and to the point I viewed her as the antagonist on the film is that she tried to hurt him intentionally.He may have been a douche, but he never tried to intentionally make her feel bad. When she thought he was dying her well-being was priority, and she reacted in the most hateful ways. I honestly believe he would have relented and gave her the house had she not used his dying letter against him.that was low. She basically spat on his love for her and made it like he wasn't worth loving. I would have given her the house to be over and done with a person who was that cold and hurtful.He never took a shot at her emotions or wished her dead. I do fault him for not letting her go as I saw her actions unforgivable.
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LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(December 07, 2016 08:14 PM)
Barbara was calling Oliver horrible things like "Fck face" for the pettiest reasons. Why? Because he manterrupted her and finished her story at dinner?? What person wouldn't pull away and wrap themselves up in something more reliable - like their work?? I say Oliver was extremely tolerant and hospitable to this psycho bitch.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin.