This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Off the Deep End
Plot Overview
Neurotic and insecure New York
divorce attorney Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) eschews becoming her
man-hungry, multiply divorced, fashion-devouring
mother “friend” Sara Miller (Frances
Fisher), so she refuses to date. Man-about-town, divorce lawyer
Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan) loves 'em and leaves 'em after
losing interest. When these two find themselves on opposite
sides of a contentious divorce proceeding, they meet over drinks
for opposition research. Nature takes its course, they have a
one-night stand. Personal animosity bleeds over into their case
arguments, and Judgess Abramovitz (Nora Dunn) tells them to
“take it outside.”
While respectively representing rock star Thorne
Jamison (Michael Sheen) and his fashion designer spouse Serena
(Parker Posey) they must fly to Ireland to depose the help of their
castle in dispute. Owing to the native festivities going on they
awake wedded from a nocturnal ceremony. Through a combination of
unfeigned affection and professional facade, they go through the
rocky motions of their new estate. The shallow rock star observing
all this sums it up saying, “Marriage is deep.”
Ideology
Prominently displayed in the
courtroom is the saying IN GOD WE TRUST, putting a
Christian perspective in the background while the regular
plot unfolds in the fore. Rafferty is shown snoozing holding a
pencil pointed at his chest, to be awakened when Audrey pulls her
own pencil out of his ear. Let's take the Genesis model where
marriage was the normative state, (Gen. 2:18) “And the LORD God
said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him
an help meet for him.” God went about it thus (Gen. 2:21-22): “And the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took
one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man.” God specially made her for the man
Adam, and Providence brought her to him who recognized there was
something special about this woman, (Gen. 2:23) “And Adam said, This
is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called
Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Furthermore,
in the beginning that was supposed to be a kind of precedent of a
woman specifically made for (& from) her particular man, (Gen. 2:24) “Therefore shall
a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife: and they shall be one flesh.” The leaving family to go
out with this special one is what today we'd call dating,
culminating in marital intimacy, but in the beginning only to be
practiced with that special one.
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then—notably the fall of man—and either there ain't that special one any more, or they have a hard time finding each other: witness all the divorces. Couples must sort themselves out somehow.
The scriptural plan is developed in Esther starting with chapter 2. The king is going to select from a large group of maidens whom he will meet day by day: (Esther 2:14), 'she came in unto the king no more, except the king delighted in her, and that she were called by name,' So the ones of these he liked, he called to make dates with. The one he settled on he married, (Esther 2:17) “And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen.” Writer Paul H. Landis writes In Defense of Dating:
It is quite logical to believe that some kind of dating is necessary to the development of the judgment and pair interaction that is at the root of real objectivity in mate selection. Those who have dated more than one person have a chance to compare and to learn some of the usual behavior patterns of members of the opposite sex. They learn to distinguish between those whose personalities seem to promise a durable compatibility and those whose personalities obviously do not. Dating is an exploratory experience through which young people learn. In most circles today, therefore, it is considered desirable that young people “circulate” rather than “go steady” from the beginning, that some variety of dating experience is favorable to ultimate mate choice. The girl who is considered desirable as a date by a number of fellows is presumed to be the one most likely to be sought after in marriage. (223)
In this movie the man has played the field, the woman not so much. He is sexually active, she frustrated. Carmen Renee Berry & Tamara Traeder offer this advice to their floundering sisters:
In addition to the more conservative and usually religious voices calling for sex only within marriage, a surprising number of secular voices are admonishing women to remember the adage, “Why buy the cow if the milk is free?” Pat Allen in her book Staying Married … and Loving It, writes, “Most modern, liberated, sexually active women believe they can maintain control over their emotions after making love. What they don't realize is that when a woman gives her body to a man, there's a strong chance that she's going to bond to him—even after only one good sexual encounter.” (Berry 82)Anthropologist Desmond Morris—best known for his book, The Naked Ape—writes of human sexual relations: (247)
The [sexual] preliminaries provide time for careful judgments to be made, judgments that may be hard to form once the massive, shared emotional impact of double orgasm has been experienced. This powerful moment can act as such a tight ‘bonder’ that it may well tie together two people quite unsuited to each other, if they have not spent sufficient time exploring each other's personalities during the sexual preliminaries. (247)
In their first extracurricular encounter, the lady lawyer had dropped in on the gent unannounced to take him off guard. He suggests they go get some drinks. The question comes up, is this a date? No, it's a “a meeting.” Yes, but an “intimate meeting.” In the movie “Say Anything,” some recent high school grads defined a date as “prearrangement, with the possibility of love.” The Book of Esther shows the origin of dating when Queen Esther made a lunch date with the king. Prearrangement resulted in a plan change when the king unable to sleep the night before had some court records read to him and so was kept from a folly. The possibility of love was represented when the king's right hand man Haman tried to bond with Esther at the lunch date to get her to intercede on his behalf. Thus a date embodies the two greatest commandments: to love God with all one's being giving him opportunity to intercede in our affairs by our prearranging the meeting, and physically bonding with one's date to best understand him or her and treat them with love of neighbor.
This first “intimate meeting” lacked the element of prearrangement and so did not qualify as a date. Later, Daniel did ask Audrey out to dinner, but she demurred until later. Later they did meet up in Ireland and presumably had dinner together during the festivities, so that would qualify as a date, the place where serious negotiations take place, in this case a festive wedding ceremony taken seriously the morning after.
Later it is discovered that the
“priest” officiating at the ceremony was not a real
priest but only the rocker's butler Michael (David Kelly)
performing the ceremonial task on account of his
ecclesiastical demeanor. But that is only lawyer-think. Prof. Tamara Metz has recounted,
“Reporter Rachel Lehmann-Haupt review[ing] the growing trend
of couples turning to close friends and family to officiate at
their weddings, facilitated by the easy, online availability of
free, instant ordination” (109). I know of at least one
couple who has married without official sanction. The
two-hundred year old elopement celebrated in this movie might not have
had any priest available.
For a proper definition of marriage, I'll quote Dr. Ide: “The Contemporary Christian standard was defined not by the bible but generated by Roman law as defined by the jurist Modestinus who argued that marriage was ‘consortium omnis vitae, divini et humani iuris communicatio: a life-long partnership, and a sharing of civil and religious rights’” (83–5). Ireland is predominately Christian; they did not even legalize divorce until 1996. Mostly they are Catholic and secondarily Eastern Orthodox. Saint Augustine who figures large in those branches and others considered marriage the start of a domestic church. The state involvement that came along later would handle the domestic partnership aspect. This couple, supposing they even were legally married, couldn't get divorced in Ireland had they wanted to, because they'd have to be residents.
Back in the states they decide to call it quits, but they somehow get turned around and end up in the judge's chambers to tie the knot. A wedding is supposed to be witnessed. In the movie “Born a Champion” a couple got married without witnesses and heaven ignored them. It being a Saturday there was nobody around for witnesses except helicopter-mom, but they needed two. Of course, there's always a skeleton crew, and the judge, we expect, will find someone there to sign off on it, but that would only establish a domestic partnership; the first amendment prohibits officers of the court from establishing a domestic church. No problemo. The domestic church was established back in Ireland where there was a good representation of the town in attendance as witnesses. (See my review of “Ticket to Paradise” for an example of a country that does double ceremonies de rigueur.)
Our movie class instructor,
erstwhile Hollywood director Tom Blank, has commented on
the marriage denouement of the plots, that they still had to decide
who takes out the garbage. Feminists complain that it falls all too
often to the woman to do the humdrum chores. Here, however,
(Sara: “He cooks? You didn't tell me he cooks.”) Daniel
takes out the garbage, etc. Marriage thus consists of: a domestic
church, a domestic partnership, and a domestic. Jeez, he wasn't
kidding about marriage being deep.
Production Values
“” (2004) was directed by Peter Howitt. It was written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Robert Harling. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore and Parker Posey. Also featured are Michael Sheen and Frances Fisher. Brosnan and Moore are a good match, both wearing lawyer hats for dramatic encounters. Supporting roles are mindless but appropriate. A comedic genius in the female lead role could have elevated the humor from a smirk to a humdinger.
MPA rated it PG–13 for sexual content and language. It was filmed on location in Humewood Castle, Kiltegan, County Wicklow, Ireland. In Ireland artists can live while working on their art without paying any income tax. In the last Deleted Scene we're given a tour of where the rocker rehearses. Evidently, there's a low bar on what is considered art. Runtime is 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Movies help us figure out life, figure out romance. When my
regular movie date eloped, they only brought with them one witness
to the Justice of the Peace, but the court secretary filled in on
her break contrary to court rules. I got my date to put in writing
that she believes “absolutely” in the separation of
church and state, and continued to date her without missing a
beat. It was no concern of mine that she entered a domestic
partnership mislabeled as marriage. My employer the local
university prohibited me from engaging in religion or politics
while on the job; I couldn't go help the evangelist on my break. My
Christian friend couldn't go on his break to join his daughter in
her march against climate change, either. This is how it works out
here in Oregon; I'm not sure how they do it in New York. It's
doubtful the Supreme Court will weigh in.
This movie is funny, musical, and thought provoking. It could have been better but is worth a view.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations from the Authorized King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software, print.
Berry, Carmen Renee and Tamara Traeder. Girlfriends Talk About Men. Berkeley: Wildcat Canyon Press, 1997. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Landis, Paul H. Making the Most of Marriage. New York: Meredith Publishing, 1965. Print.
Lehmann-Haupt, Rachel. “Need a Minister? How about Your Brother?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003, late edition, sec. 9, 1+. As quoted in Tamara Metz.
Metz, Tamara. Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State, and the Case for Their Divorce. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2010. Print.
Morris, Desmond. Manwatching. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1977. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org