The Jordans are a comfortable upper middle class 1990s Los Angeles family. Not as comfortable as things appear, however. Katie and Ben Jordan (Michelle Pfeiffer and Bruce Willis) haven’t been getting along for quite a while. They put on cheerful facades for their two kids, but have nothing to say to each other when alone.
Through a series of flashbacks, we see the good times and the bad over their 15-year marriage. These are interspersed through a summer during which the kids are away at camp, giving Katie and Ben an opportunity to separate without them knowing. It’s a sad story of a marriage in tatters, although director Rob Reiner has injected levity by interspersing glib little comedic scenes throughout the film. Paul Reiser and Reiner play Ben’s friends, and they deliver many of the jokes aimed at satirizing everything from Internet sex to anal examinations. Some of them are funny, but many are simply obnoxious and out of place in a film that at least pretends to be exploring the serious issues of marriage.
Unfortunately, this exploration is far too shallow. By jumbling together the ‘good old days’ of frisky relationship bliss with the unhappy more recent days of non-communication, Reiner leaves us wondering how and when their marriage went wrong. Sure, Ben and Katie talk about how things slipped away, but this isn’t what we see on the screen. We see a happy marriage and then a screwed up marriage, with weak links between them.
Despite this fundamental flaw, Willis and Pfeiffer each give good performances. Willis goes off track only once, when he blows off steam in true Bruce Willis fashion. Pfeiffer delivers a sensitive performance throughout, although it’s a shame she was handed such a one-dimensional character. Katie is, simply put, uptight and detail-oriented. Ben is a free spirit. That’s about all the screenwriters gave them to work with, and it’s just not enough.
In the end, you’ll likely find yourself wiping tears from your eyes as the sentimental closing scene closes. But if you think about it, you’ll soon resent the manipulation. After creating a serious, realistic and extremely sad situation, the filmmakers fix everything with a flick of the screenwriter’s pen. Audiences might initially come away tearful and happy, but before those tears are dry, the The Story of Us will either be forgotten or the emotional investment will be regretted.
