The Story of Us
Encyclopedia
The Story of Us is a 1999 American
film directed by Rob Reiner
, and starring Bruce Willis
and Michelle Pfeiffer
as a couple married for fifteen years.
The depiction of the marriage through a series of non-linear flashbacks is reminiscent of Two for the Road (1967) starring Albert Finney
and Audrey Hepburn
, while the "interview" segments featuring characters addressing the camera directly as a therapist are reminiscent of Reiner's previous film When Harry Met Sally...
(1989) starring Billy Crystal
and Meg Ryan
.
) and his wife Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer
) have been married for fifteen years; they have two children, Erin (Colleen Rennison
) and Josh (Jake Sandvig
), a nice home and a comfortable life. Their happy marriage, however, is a sham—a performance they deliver daily for the benefit of their children, while behind the scenes they cannot stand each other anymore. Sending their kids off to summer camp, Ben and Katie commence a trial separation, during which both try and remember what it is about the other that caused them to fall in love in the first place.
The Story of Us was the last full-length feature film appearance of Academy Award-winning actor Red Buttons.
, and a score of 37 on Metacritic
, indicating generally unfavorable reviews.
In the New York Times, Janet Maslin
wrote: "The Story of Us offers such an arthritic vision of middle-aged marriage that it feels like the first Jack Lemmon comedy made expressly for the baby boom generation. Perhaps that would explain the casting of Bruce Willis as a jokey but sensitive suburban Dad and Michelle Pfeiffer as his beleaguered spouse. The stars, variously directed by Rob Reiner to kid around, look wistful or scream so hard that their necks turn red, are not helped by the film's elbow-in-the-ribs humor or its overbearing tactics. Though it sets out to explain why this marriage is worth saving, The Story of Us could prompt even single members of the audience to file for divorce."
In the Los Angeles Times
, Kenneth Turan
wrote: "A wannabe sensitive film that's scared of cutting too deeply, The Story of Us doesn't want to be real enough to jeopardize its homogenized humor. While it's already hard to accept carefully photographed major stars like Willis and Pfeiffer as regular folks with everyday problems, it's even harder when both their fun and their fury seem slickly scripted. Not only don't we feel the Jordans' pain, it's not clear that we even want to... Pfeiffer and Willis acquit themselves as well as the script and direction allow, though Willis' romantic comedy timing does seem to have gotten rusty since his Moonlighting days. Their movie-stars-yelling-at-each-other relationship doesn't feel much more real than the happily married act they put on for their kids."
In the Chicago Sun-Times
, Roger Ebert
wrote: "Gene Siskel used to ask if a movie was as good as a documentary of the same actors having lunch. Watching The Story of Us, I imagined a documentary of the marriage of, say, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. I do not say that to score a cheap point, but because Moore and Willis are spirited and intelligent people who no doubt had interesting fights about real issues, and not insipid fights about sitcom issues... there is a restaurant scene in which Willis screams angrily in an unsuccessful (indeed, melancholy) attempt to rip off Meg Ryan's famous restaurant orgasm in Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... At the end of his tirade, Willis jumps up and tells Reiner what he can "shove up the tops of your legs!" Doesn't work, because (a) he's too angry to think up or stop for a punch line, (b) the line isn't funny, and (c) the setup wasn't funny, either, because the concept isn't funny. Oh, and the scene ends with Reiner doing a double-take directly into the camera. How many ways can one scene be mishandled? Who thought this movie would be entertaining? The same person who thinks we need more dialogue about why guys do the wrong thing with rolls of toilet paper. And who thinks the misery of this film can be repaired by a showboat monologue at the end that's well-delivered by Pfeiffer, but reads like an audition scene."
In the San Francisco Chronicle
, Mick LaSalle
wrote: "Anyone so naive as to turn to Hollywood for a wise and honest statement about marriage deserves this film... One thing the movie accomplishes: It shows how arguments can flare up out of nowhere and become shouting matches. Pfeiffer and Willis are convincingly married in those moments... Reiner compounds dishonest writing with dishonest direction. Though Katie gushes to her husband within earshot of her kids, he never cuts to the children for their reactions. In fact, he tries to make us believe the kids didn't hear a thing. It's typical of The Story of Us, which is not really about marriage. It's about Kodak moments."
In the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter wrote: "Willis seems particularly miscast. His tendencies toward smirkiness have been encouraged and sentimentalized. As for Pfeiffer, she spends so much time screaming at him for failing to fill the windshield wiper fluid container in the van that it's easy to forget she is one of the world's most beautiful women and gifted actresses. Michelle, enough with the mommy crap! Get a cocktail dress and a pair of very high-heeled Steve Maddens, and make us dream about you again."
Empire
wrote: "Essentially, it's When Sally Divorced Harry... as Bruce (playing Bruce) and Michelle (the whining wife) try a temporary separation, then proceed to dissect their marriage with the obligatory flashbacks (Bruce Willis with long hair getting the only laugh) and weakly written Nora Ephron-esque chats with witty pals (Bruce gets Reiner and Paul Reiser, Michelle gets Rita Wilson), which only serve to remind us how much better this would have been if Reiner had hired Ephron to write it."
Time Out wrote: "Time has steadily coarsened Reiner's once sure touch for frantic comedy, and although he neutralises the more sentimental elements of Alan Zweibel and Jessie Nelson's banal screenplay, his failure to flesh out or evoke sympathy for either character reduces the movie to an unedifying slanging match."
was nominated for a Young Artist Award
for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress.
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
film directed by Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
, and starring Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
and Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
as a couple married for fifteen years.
The depiction of the marriage through a series of non-linear flashbacks is reminiscent of Two for the Road (1967) starring Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
and Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
, while the "interview" segments featuring characters addressing the camera directly as a therapist are reminiscent of Reiner's previous film When Harry Met Sally...
When Harry Met Sally...
When Harry Met Sally... is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years or...
(1989) starring Billy Crystal
Billy Crystal
William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...
and Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
.
Plot
Ben Jordan (Bruce WillisBruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
) and his wife Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Pfeiffer
Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
) have been married for fifteen years; they have two children, Erin (Colleen Rennison
Colleen Rennison
Colleen Rennison is a Canadian singer/songwriter and actress of feature films, television movies and television series.- Life and career :...
) and Josh (Jake Sandvig
Jake Sandvig
Steven Jacob "Jake" Sandvig is an American actor. He is best known for playing Hugh Payne in 20 Good Years and Preston Shackleton in Cracking Up. In 2009, he made a guest appearance in Ruby & The Rockits. He is also known for his role in Easy A and Sky High-Filmography:-Guest appearances:-External...
), a nice home and a comfortable life. Their happy marriage, however, is a sham—a performance they deliver daily for the benefit of their children, while behind the scenes they cannot stand each other anymore. Sending their kids off to summer camp, Ben and Katie commence a trial separation, during which both try and remember what it is about the other that caused them to fall in love in the first place.
Cast
- Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as Ben Jordan - Michelle PfeifferMichelle PfeifferMichelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She made her film debut in 1980 in The Hollywood Knights, but first garnered mainstream attention with her performance in Brian De Palma's Scarface . Pfeiffer has won numerous awards for her work...
as Katie Jordan - Colleen RennisonColleen RennisonColleen Rennison is a Canadian singer/songwriter and actress of feature films, television movies and television series.- Life and career :...
as Erin Jordan at Ten - Jake SandvigJake SandvigSteven Jacob "Jake" Sandvig is an American actor. He is best known for playing Hugh Payne in 20 Good Years and Preston Shackleton in Cracking Up. In 2009, he made a guest appearance in Ruby & The Rockits. He is also known for his role in Easy A and Sky High-Filmography:-Guest appearances:-External...
as Josh Jordan at Twelve - Tim MathesonTim MathesonTim Matheson is an American actor, director and producer. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the smooth-talking Eric 'Otter' Stratton in the 1978 comedy National Lampoon's Animal House and has had a variety of other well-known roles, including providing the voice of the lead character...
as Marty - Rob ReinerRob ReinerRobert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
as Stan - Julie HagertyJulie HagertyJulie Hagerty is an American actress and former model.-Early life:Hagerty was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Harriet Yuellig, a model and singer, and Jerry Hagerty, a musician. Her brother Michael Hagerty was also an actor. Her parents later divorced. Hagerty attended Indian Hill High...
as Liza - Rita WilsonRita Wilson-Early life:Wilson was born Margarita Ibrahimoff in Los Angeles, California.Her father, a Bulgarian who worked at a racetrack, was born in Greece. Before immigrating to the US, he had lived in Bulgaria and Turkey....
as Rachel - Ken LernerKen LernerKen Lerner is an American television, stage and film actor who is perhaps most famous for playing "Principal Flutie" in the first episodes of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.-Early life:...
as Dr. Rifkin - Victor Raider-WexlerVictor Raider-WexlerVictor Raider-Wexler is an American television and film actor.-Career:Raider-Wexler started his career in the 1970s. He was the stage manager for the 1976 Broadway play Best Friend...
as Dr. Hopkins - Albert HagueAlbert HagueAlbert Hague was a German-born songwriter, composer, and actor.-Early life:Hague was born as Albert Marcuse to a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany. His father, Harry Marcuse, was a psychiatrist and a musical prodigy, and his mother, Mimi , a chess champion...
as Dr. Siegler - Jayne MeadowsJayne Meadows-Early life:Jayne Meadows was born as Jayne Cotter in Wu-ch'ang, in Heilongjiang, China, to Episcopal missionary parents, the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter and his wife, the former Ida Miller Taylor, who had married in 1915. Meadows is the older sister of the late actress Audrey Meadows. She...
as Dot - Tom PostonTom PostonThomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...
as Harry - Betty WhiteBetty WhiteBetty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
as Lillian Jordan - Red Buttons as Arnie Jordan
- Paul ReiserPaul ReiserPaul Reiser is an American stand-up comedian, actor, television personality, author, screenwriter and musician. He is most widely known for his role on the long-running television sitcom Mad About You.-Early life:...
as Dave, Ben's Literary Agent (uncredited) - Steven GreeneSteven GreeneSteven Greene is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Hawthorn in the Australian Football League ....
as Youth soccer player - "'Phil Lopian"' as "man on street 1"
- "'Kris Texiera"' as "store clerk"
The Story of Us was the last full-length feature film appearance of Academy Award-winning actor Red Buttons.
Reception
The Story of Us holds a rating of 28% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, and a score of 37 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, indicating generally unfavorable reviews.
In the New York Times, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
wrote: "The Story of Us offers such an arthritic vision of middle-aged marriage that it feels like the first Jack Lemmon comedy made expressly for the baby boom generation. Perhaps that would explain the casting of Bruce Willis as a jokey but sensitive suburban Dad and Michelle Pfeiffer as his beleaguered spouse. The stars, variously directed by Rob Reiner to kid around, look wistful or scream so hard that their necks turn red, are not helped by the film's elbow-in-the-ribs humor or its overbearing tactics. Though it sets out to explain why this marriage is worth saving, The Story of Us could prompt even single members of the audience to file for divorce."
In the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is an American film critic and Lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California.-Background:...
wrote: "A wannabe sensitive film that's scared of cutting too deeply, The Story of Us doesn't want to be real enough to jeopardize its homogenized humor. While it's already hard to accept carefully photographed major stars like Willis and Pfeiffer as regular folks with everyday problems, it's even harder when both their fun and their fury seem slickly scripted. Not only don't we feel the Jordans' pain, it's not clear that we even want to... Pfeiffer and Willis acquit themselves as well as the script and direction allow, though Willis' romantic comedy timing does seem to have gotten rusty since his Moonlighting days. Their movie-stars-yelling-at-each-other relationship doesn't feel much more real than the happily married act they put on for their kids."
In the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
wrote: "Gene Siskel used to ask if a movie was as good as a documentary of the same actors having lunch. Watching The Story of Us, I imagined a documentary of the marriage of, say, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. I do not say that to score a cheap point, but because Moore and Willis are spirited and intelligent people who no doubt had interesting fights about real issues, and not insipid fights about sitcom issues... there is a restaurant scene in which Willis screams angrily in an unsuccessful (indeed, melancholy) attempt to rip off Meg Ryan's famous restaurant orgasm in Reiner's When Harry Met Sally... At the end of his tirade, Willis jumps up and tells Reiner what he can "shove up the tops of your legs!" Doesn't work, because (a) he's too angry to think up or stop for a punch line, (b) the line isn't funny, and (c) the setup wasn't funny, either, because the concept isn't funny. Oh, and the scene ends with Reiner doing a double-take directly into the camera. How many ways can one scene be mishandled? Who thought this movie would be entertaining? The same person who thinks we need more dialogue about why guys do the wrong thing with rolls of toilet paper. And who thinks the misery of this film can be repaired by a showboat monologue at the end that's well-delivered by Pfeiffer, but reads like an audition scene."
In the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
wrote: "Anyone so naive as to turn to Hollywood for a wise and honest statement about marriage deserves this film... One thing the movie accomplishes: It shows how arguments can flare up out of nowhere and become shouting matches. Pfeiffer and Willis are convincingly married in those moments... Reiner compounds dishonest writing with dishonest direction. Though Katie gushes to her husband within earshot of her kids, he never cuts to the children for their reactions. In fact, he tries to make us believe the kids didn't hear a thing. It's typical of The Story of Us, which is not really about marriage. It's about Kodak moments."
In the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter wrote: "Willis seems particularly miscast. His tendencies toward smirkiness have been encouraged and sentimentalized. As for Pfeiffer, she spends so much time screaming at him for failing to fill the windshield wiper fluid container in the van that it's easy to forget she is one of the world's most beautiful women and gifted actresses. Michelle, enough with the mommy crap! Get a cocktail dress and a pair of very high-heeled Steve Maddens, and make us dream about you again."
Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
wrote: "Essentially, it's When Sally Divorced Harry... as Bruce (playing Bruce) and Michelle (the whining wife) try a temporary separation, then proceed to dissect their marriage with the obligatory flashbacks (Bruce Willis with long hair getting the only laugh) and weakly written Nora Ephron-esque chats with witty pals (Bruce gets Reiner and Paul Reiser, Michelle gets Rita Wilson), which only serve to remind us how much better this would have been if Reiner had hired Ephron to write it."
Time Out wrote: "Time has steadily coarsened Reiner's once sure touch for frantic comedy, and although he neutralises the more sentimental elements of Alan Zweibel and Jessie Nelson's banal screenplay, his failure to flesh out or evoke sympathy for either character reduces the movie to an unedifying slanging match."
Awards and nominations
Colleen RennisonColleen Rennison
Colleen Rennison is a Canadian singer/songwriter and actress of feature films, television movies and television series.- Life and career :...
was nominated for a Young Artist Award
Young Artist Award
The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist...
for Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress.