The Story of Us (1999)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Rob Reiner

Writers (WGA):

Alan Zweibel (written by) &
Jessie Nelson (written by)

Release Date:

15 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Can a marriage survive 15 years of marriage?

Plot:

Ben and Katie Jordan are a married couple who go through hard times in fifteen years of marriage.

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Restaurant | Husband Wife Relationship | Crossword Puzzle | Marital Separation

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Ben Jordan
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Katie Jordan
Colleen Rennison	...	Erin Jordan at Ten
Jake Sandvig	...	Josh Jordan at Twelve
Casey Boersma	...	Josh Jordan at Two and a Half
Tim Matheson	...	Marty
Rob Reiner	...	Stan
Julie Hagerty	...	Liza
Rita Wilson	...	Rachel
Dylan Boersma	...	Josh Jordan at Three
Ken Lerner	...	Dr. Rifkin
Victor Raider-Wexler	...	Dr. Hopkins
Albert Hague	...	Dr. Siegler
Jayne Meadows	...	Dot
Tom Poston	...	Harry

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIB | New Zealand:M | Singapore:NC-16 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:13 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

The last full length feature film of Red Buttons.

Goofs:

Continuity: The Ford Expedition's rear window defroster appears and reappears during different driving scenes.

Quotes:

Rachel: You were our Fred and Ethel Mertz!
Katie Jordan: Funny, we thought you were OUR Fred and Ethel Mertz.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Game K N B: (2006-11-29)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Classical Gas

Sweet, sad and, um, that's it

This is a pretty film, often poignant, and a bit too close to the bone at times for my liking. Still, it carries you along quite nicely - making it's point that time grinds marriages down more often than affairs - and then sort of stops.

The leads were great: Willis was really good, Pfeiffer was fantastic (hey, i'm a fan, okay). But, the characters were tough to take. The self-pity was intercut with nice bits of comedy, but it felt like Reiner was cutting from a wake to a pratt-fall on occasions.

The final scenes, with Pfeiffer's frightening display of multi-emotional skill (at once excellent and utterly ghastly), betrayed the characters. Normality was implausibly resumed, and Pfeiffer came across as at fault for taking the whole film to get real, and Willis looked much relieved that she'd taken the sanity pill and he could quit trying to change himself.

And the end was a surprise. I thought there was going to be more: a deeper level of story. But it ended without a sense of closure.