In fact, this film reflects a lot of complex issues. Life is not so much right and wrong, but more about neutralization.
I have always felt that there is nothing wrong with Joanna. Women will play many roles in their lives, daughters, wives, mothers... But the most important thing is to be yourself, so that you can have the energy and capital to play other roles. If you suddenly can't find yourself and lose your happiness and meaning in life, then for Joanna, running away - not completely correct, but the only option you can make.
In the beginning, I thought Ted was a typical PUA husband making his wife unable to find herself. But the film gradually deepened and let me realize that he is a delicate person, and he is trying to learn to get along with others more harmoniously. Ted would care about what happened to his wife and share his achievements with him; he would also try to understand his son's preferences and play with him. He is studying.
Therefore, this divorce is essentially just a matter of right and wrong, and there is no clear who is right and who is wrong. A custody battle is just asking for the rights they deserve, maybe Ted and Joanna don't need each other anymore, but everyone needs Billy!
But... in the court, there is not so much reason to speak, and it is necessary to distinguish who is right and who is wrong, and who wins or loses.
In order to win the case for their side, lawyers must try their best to find various angles to explain, even if it sounds too much as a bystander, this is the court.
The lawyer said that Ted delayed his work and caused the company to lose a major client, but he suddenly left because Billy was bullied, and he had to come forward; the lawyer said that Ted made his son almost blind in one eye and broke his face. , but he carried Billy Fei to the hospital without delay for a moment, and held his head while stitching, so that he would not be afraid.
The lawyer said that Joanna left the child as a mother, but if she can't find a complete self, how can she give the child a complete mother? The lawyer said that Joanna screwed up the most important relationship in her life, but what does it mean to screw up? Is it a divorce? Then why did Ted shake her head to show her that she hadn't screwed up?
These questions focus only on one side of things, deliberately wiping out the other side in order to express one's point of view. Lawyers are sensible people, they know how complicated things are, and sometimes people have no choice. But like what Ted said in a conversation with him - "Do you have to be so hard on her?" "Do you want children?" "..."
This gave me another taste. In the face of the law, emotion and law cannot coexist, and some things are within reason but outside the law.
But no matter what, man is alive and can be reconciled. Both Joanna and Ted knew that Billy's real "home" was where he was, not New York.
In addition, the lawyer's words about "lifetime" are worth thinking about. I think the so-called "lifetime" may not really be forever until death, but your temporary plan for the future. Once the plan is changed, the "lifetime" will stagnate, and perhaps, you will start the next "lifetime" of your life.
Just like Joanna and Ted and Billy.
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