Buy posters from this movie

imagine Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have once again fallen into each other's arms and the music has swelled, but now it is 10 or 15 years later. All those little idiosyncrasies they used to find cute are now driving them crazy. There are kids who have to be looked after, bills which have to be paid and when it comes right down to it, they have simply stopped working on being a couple. Tempers are flaring. They look for any reason to scream at each other. Sometimes, hating each other is the only thing that gets them up in the morning. Welcome to We Don't Live Here Anymore.

Jack & Terry (Mark Ruffalo & Laura Dern) are married, with two children and a house. Jack is a professor at the local University in their town in Maine. He does not seem particularly interested in his job, or much anything else, and has taken the summer off from teaching, even though money is rather tight. Terry seems to love Jack, but she has difficulty finding the energy or motivation to do much of anything. Deep down, she seems like an affectionate person, but she is incredibly angry and lets Jack know it regularly. Her tirades fall on deaf ears since Jack has mostly withdrawn from Terry, as well as from pretty much everything else in his life.

Hank & Edith (Peter Krause & Naomi Watts) are married friends of Jack & Terry who have simply withdrawn from each other. They never argue because they don't talk to each other. Hank is also a professor and, needing to be published, spends almost all his time writing a novel. Edith talks of how much she hates Hank and expends a great deal of energy covertly making him pay for it. She suspects Hank wouldn't even care if he knew what she was doing, and seems almost anxious to let him know so she can find out for sure.

We Don't Live Here Anymore is a methodical film which simply allows the audience to watch as the two couples move closer and closer toward some sort of catharsis. What is unusual is how all of them eventually face and admit to what they have done, at least as well as they can. It may take some of them a few tries to come to the decision they ultimately reach and not all of them get there willingly, but the point of the film is the process they each go through. This is pure character study, and a pretty decent one at that.

This review originally appeared on Slacker-Reviews.com.

The subject matter is difficult because it is so real. People do these things every day. It's just a bit more concentrated in We Don't Live Here Anymore for the sake of a focused story. This is the type of film where it may be difficult to accept how everyone deals with the behavior of others, but that is because they behave more like real people than typical movie characters. In real life, some couples find the reasons they came together in the first place, no matter what they have been through, while others are incapable of doing the same. Some messes are cleaned up enough for life to go on and others aren't, which may be upsetting for viewers looking for a conventional ending. The ambiguity of We Don't Live Here Anymore reminds me of the fabulous, and rather painful 2001 film In the Bedroom. While this is definitely the lesser film, it is still worth the effort for anyone interested in the darker, more realistic side of long term relationships.

link directly to this review at https://www.hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=8536&reviewer=373
originally posted: 07/08/05 07:33:58
 printer-friendly format