The film gets better and better, powered by a sharp ,wise script and superlative acting. Nic and Jules's idyll develops cracks when one of their two children, Joni, Jules's biological daughter, seeks out her anonymous sperm-donor father. Paul proves to be a tousle-headed organic farmer/restaurateur who rides a motorbike, lives like an overgrown hippy and annoys Bening's intermittently rigid, rule-making Nic. Annoyance becomes worse when Nic stumbles on evidence, later ,that the relationship between Paul and Jules is not what she thought.
By then we are in ther characters' lives, minds and hearts. Like all good comedy dramas, this one thrives on paradox and contradiction. Ruffalo's Paul is a planet-groomer whose everyday life has split ends. Moore as Jules is the marriage's meek junior who shows sass and defiance. Bening is the keep-it-together partner sho comes apart.
The family that implodes together stays whole together. We have all done it; we have all emerged, at least once in our lives, from the smoking near -ruin of a relationship still relationship-whole, because somehow we managed to synergise our self-incinerations. This process of healing might have been boring on screen , but it's totally true.
------FT
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