MovieChat Forums > A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992) Discussion > This movie reminds me of 'The Social Net...

This movie reminds me of 'The Social Network'

posted 12 years ago by Clothes-Off
2 replies | jump to latest

Compelling to watch, some juicy dialogue, even though it is a completely unrealistic depiction of the events that transpired.

The Social Network made Mark Zuckerberg out to be almost psychotic, while his FB cofounder was portrayed as a saint. (And the Napster guy, a total douchebag.)

Same thing in this story. The husband is portrayed as a father-of-the-year (savce for one token scene in which an employee quits because he treats people unfairly--and even that is implied could be just her perception). The movie actually makes it look as if he waited until their marriage was clearly over before taking up with Linda. HA!

The difference is in this case, taking that tack results in the movie making no sense. If Betty had been married to the Dan Broderick portrayed by Stephen Collins, she would not have gone off the deep end. There had to have been some psychological abuse on his part.

Meredith as Betty even spouts off in ways similar to Jesse Eisenberg as MZ at that mediation hearing.

In both cases, they are mesmerizing, but there is just no way either story went down in real life as on film!

"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns

[–] cmichaud 12 years ago

Given that Dan's brother, and I believe another relative, or maybe the new wife's sister, provided much of the input for the screenplay, i.e. cooperated with, it's not surprising that he (Dan) was portrayed sympathetically. Even given that, I thought the portrayal gave Betty a few moments of genuine pathhos and understanding.

[–] Cultfilmfeverforever 11 years ago

I agree with Clothes-Off. I would have preferred the characters to be portrayed more like their real-life counterparts. There would not have been any true heroes in the mess, but it would have made for fascinating character studies. I always thought of Dan and Betty as having sociopathic tendencies, so two villains going after each other could have been fun in some ways, not unlike THE WAR OF THE ROSES.