Sorry but I can't condone him leaving his family and dating a younger woman. You don't walk away from commitment like that. No matter how hunky dorey everything turned out, I hated his character.
shareI always loved him.
He does the best possible things he can do after the divorce.
I wish there was more to why they divorced. As committed as they both are to their family it's shocking they let it get that far.
He didn't leave his family; he divorced his wife. There is a distinct
difference. Some people see divorce as a get-out-of-all-responsibility card, an run away without a care. Luke loved and tried his best to be there for what was, and always will be his family.
He told the school principal that had seen a few women after they split up, and now was dating Isabel.
It was Jackie who kept interrupting him, and making him look bad in front of the principal. From what I got from the film, he was trying to make the best for his kids, and even Jackie, but she in her eyes only she was an adequate parent for them, which results in a very unhealthy attachment to her.
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I'm the unsilent majority, bigmouth.
Yeah it's really old fashioned of me to expect people to keep their promises and honor their commitments. Not merely "try" to.
I don't blame Jackie for being angry and I don't think she tried to make him look bad, I think he made himself look bad and the worst she can be accused of is not assisting him in covering it.
1. He is a fictional character so calm down chubby
2. Please channel your anger and frustrations into something positive
3. Your hateful behavior to people that respect their own bodies is disgusting; your hateful behavior towards people of other races is appalling.
4. Put down the National Equirer and People magazines along with the Snickers Bar and slice of pizza and mend yourself. Not only will you stop being obese but you may like yourself which would be a start to stop hating and learning to like others.
1. He is a fictional character so calm down chubby
2. Please channel your anger and frustrations into something positive
3. Your hateful behavior to people that respect their own bodies is disgusting; your hateful behavior towards people of other races is appalling.
4. Put down the National Equirer and People magazines along with the Snickers Bar and slice of pizza and mend yourself. Not only will you stop being obese but you may like yourself which would be a start to stop hating and learning to like others.
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huh?
shareThis is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, so they should stay in an unhappy marriage why?
My parents had a TERRIBLE marriage, constantly fighting and screaming and arguing. When they divorced us kids were MUCH happier, and so were they.
It's total BS when people say they stay together for the kids, OH YEAH that's what they need, to see their parents unhappy.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, so they should stay in an unhappy marriage why?
My parents had a TERRIBLE marriage, constantly fighting and screaming and arguing. When they divorced us kids were MUCH happier, and so were they.
It's total BS when people say they stay together for the kids, OH YEAH that's what they need, to see their parents unhappy.
Jupiter,
In the movie when Ed and Susan's characters are arguing outside of her porch, he points out that SHE was the one who kicked him out, and it was because he worked too much.
So, HE didn't abandon his family. If you're going to point fingers, then at least point it at both because it takes two.
I'm also a child of divorced parents but I never held any resentment towards them for it.
They were horrible together and made all of our lives hell and I understood that. I'm the one who told my mother to divorce my father because I knew how unhappy she was and they were just together for my sake but it wasn't right.
Now they are happier on their own and I have a better relationship with both of them.
Often people get married for the wrong reasons and it's why so many of them live unhappily together and ultimately separate.
The world isn't as Black or White as you see it.
When was the last time an evil act was committed in the name of the Devil..?
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That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, too. Like many people here, I am the child of divorce, and I wanted my parents to be happy. I did not want then, and I do not want now, my parents to suffer for my sake. Yes, I missed my father because I saw him less, and my mom had more trouble being single than he did, but we were all MUCH happier after they split up. Back then I would walk into rooms to see my mother crying in a corner.
Divorce isn't always the answer, but it definitely is sometimes.
Wait until you're out of high school and get into the real world for a few years, then come back and reread this, in the context of this movie.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
He was useless!
shareUseles, huh? Yeah, he just worked his a§§ off so they could live a priviliged life, but that wasn't enough for Jackie, so SHE asked HIM to leave. He obviously was a caring person, but Jackie was the one pulling the passive/aggressive bs, doing whatever she could do to try and sabatoge his relationship with Isabel.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Useles, huh? Yeah, he just worked his a§§ off so they could live a priviliged life, but that wasn't enough for Jackie, so SHE asked HIM to leave. He obviously was a caring person, but Jackie was the one pulling the passive/aggressive bs, doing whatever she could do to try and sabatoge his relationship with Isabel.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Really in what way is he a jerk? Because he decided to move on wth his life after his divorce?
As it has already been pointed out by others on this thread Jackie kicked him out and after they separated he dated a few women before he started dating Isabel. He didn't divorce Jackie to be with Isabel.
It was Jackie's anger for her own failure at maintaining her marriage to Luke which she redirected to Isabel and subconsciously allowing her kids to treat Isabel the same way. Look back at the horse riding scene with little Ben telling his mother "Mommy, if you want me to hate her, I will."
She may have unconsciously pushing them to hate Isabel before then, but then at that point she continued it, even going as far as stealing Isabel's idea of taking the daughter to a Pearl Jam concert to bond with her. Shes the adult and should set a better example for her children.
Does that mean she has to like Isabel? No, she doesn't but she doesn't have to be openly hostile or rude in front of her children. But in her mind she thinks she knows best for her family, after all they're her children. Luke was trying to maintain a friendship with his exwife for their children as well as Jackie's sake. And i bet before the start of the film they probably were until he started his relationship with Isabel.
If anything else the three adults (Jackie, Luke and Isabel) need to remain civil for the kids sake.
I think the film made most people feel more sympathy towards Jackie then Isabel and Luke because she was the one with cancer, dying. And while I do feel sympathic towards her that doesn't excuse her bad behavior towards Luke and Isabel. Had she been upfront with him along with the kids they could have accepted Isabel into the family easier but Jackie didn't want to because she felt she was already being replaced as a wife, and mother part time and with her diagnosis that would mean permanently.
The stress of her disease is hard enough without adding on unnecessary stress worrying for her children's future without her and the feeling of being replaced.
When they're having one of their mini arguements, he says she kicked him out, so he didn't walk out. So the break up of the family was her fault.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
And I didn't think he had chemistry with Julia Roberts at all. They looked weird together.
shareThis isn't to say that I don't like Julia Roberts, and I don't know if it's her demeanor or the way she speaks, but I have not seem any movie of hers where I really believed the love story.
shareI heard the movies she's in with Richard Gere are really good.
shareI liked Pretty Woman. Runaway Bride, not so much.
I also like Notting Hill, and I think that one sort of works because Hugh Grant is awkward as well and the movie is more about them getting together than actually being together.
Honestly, he didn't leave his family, he got divorced and was still in his kids lives a lot. He seemed to be a great father to them.
What he wasn't, though, is a good partner. Isabel seemed to bear the majority of the load in helping with his children (I know, I know, he worked to support them all, blah blah. Isabel had a job, too), and had to bear the brunt of Jackie's disrespect and disdain. How she didn't unload on Luke about Jackie's treatment of her, is beyond me.