Too one sided.


It doesn't entirely paint the wife as a villain but it isn't exactly sympathetic to her.
This is why Marriage Story is a better movie.

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I agree.

The movie showed that the mother and Billy had a good relationship, the way he ran towards her in the park and the way she cried for him at the end. But we didn’t see that love in action, the way we see Ted and Billy together. We didn’t see the mother and Billy making breakfast. We didn’t see her picking him up from school. We didn’t see her reading to him at night. But we saw Ted do those tasks, which naturally makes the viewer lean towards Ted as a parent.

In court, the movie also spoke about the mother getting on her feet and finding a good job ($31,000). But we don’t see that in action. We don’t see her hustle, her hardworking spirit. We only see Ted’s hustle when he finds a job in 24 hours. Again, the one sidedness pushes the viewer towards Ted.

So I agree. The movie too unfairly portrayed the mother as this woman who, though she loves Billy, left him uncaringly

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???

Trying to figure out how this take on the plot makes sense.

She *wasn't* a caring mother. She DIDN'T have a good relationship with her son. This is why the movie doesn't show it.

It's baffling how you turn this simple fact into a "flaw" in the movie.

Sounds like you wanted a different plot/movie. The fact that you didn't get that doesn't mean there's anything wrong here.

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You say she wasn’t a caring mother, that she didn’t have a good relationship with her son.

But the movie showed the boy run towards her in the park, indicating love / affection. She also cried for the boy at the end.

There’s a feeling that she was a loving, caring parent who had a good relationship with him. The movie just decided not too flesh out that detail, paying all attention to the father instead .

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Good Lord. . .

SHE LEFT HIM. It got too tough for her, and she left. Endof. That is NOT a "caring mother," and she did NOT have a good relationship with him. The movie makes that explicit. Baffling how you refuse to see that, but your internal mindscape has nothing to do with what was put on the screen. What child Wouldn't run toward their mother, who left them? That doesn't speak to her character. . .it speaks to his Need.

You've also completely ignored that horrific letter she wrote to him, describing how she needed to leave to "do more interesting things."

The movie doesn't examine her. . .because that's not the story it's telling. It's telling the story of a woman who bailed when it got too tough for her, doing a reprehensible level of damage to a kid who she had Responsibilities to, then rewarded her when she came back. And incidentally, Punished the father, who stepped up HEROICALLY.

Ask yourself this: what do you think Streep's character, as presented, would do if things got too tough Again?

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Agreed! He only ran to her because he still loves her. It's his mom.. sh bailed, he didn't.

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As I remember the film that is true. It was a very unsympathetic role for Streep and I thought at the time she was a selfish cow - plus the tactics in the courtroom turned us against her. But I've not seen this film since the 80s and I'm wondering how much older me would see it now.

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