I've seen this movie about a dozen times, and I've tried for a long time to articulate just what bothers me about it. What I LIKE about it is easy: awkward family scenes are enjoyable to me for some reason. The acting was incredible, as you'd expect from anything Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. I even like that it examines situational ethics, such as:
Would it be excusable to cheat if your wife is a cold, raging b*tch?
What about committing suicide to get away from the obligation of taking care of your cantankerous, drug addicted wife?
Should first cousins be acceptable as a couple if one or both are sterile?
How young is "too young" for a man to begin a sexual relationship with a young woman?
However, I feel the writers took it too far at times, almost excusing away the character's behavior through dialogue. For example, there's a reason that the dope-smoking daughter is 14- going-on-30; her age is supposed to conflict with her looks and maturity, making us second guess whether we think it was really WRONG of Karen's fiancée to hit on her, especially if she was willing. Karen went into a pathetic rant right before she left with Steve about Jean (the 14 year old) being partially responsible, and how it's a grey area. It's not.
Violet belligerently attacked almost everyone at the funeral dinner and when Barb protested, she told her she knew nothing about REAL attacks, citing her terrible childhood. No one really shut her down here and she went on quite a long tirade which always feels to me like the writer was expressing their OWN views here, and I'm sorry, but no matter how rotten your childhood was, it doesn't give you an excuse to treat others like crap. Yet another moment where it felt like they tried to ask the audience, "Is it okay to behave badly IF...?"
Later, it's revealed that Aunt Mattie Fey had an affair with Beverly, resulting in a Little Charles. She goes into this self- righteous dialogue about how she's "more than just your fat Aunt Mattie Fae...there's more to me than that." That, I assume, was supposed to imply that because the situation is more complicated than it may appear, that makes it somehow excusable.
Finally, if you weren't uncomfortable enough by the romantic relationship between first cousins, the writer pushes it a step further to test your tolerance: the first cousins are actually half- siblings.
The whole movie felt like one ethics test after another, which is fine, except that the writer also inserted their own answers to the tests through their characters, and I completely disagree with ALL of their conclusions.
Would it be excusable to cheat if your wife is a cold, raging b*tch?
What about committing suicide to get away from the obligation of taking care of your cantankerous, drug addicted wife?
Should first cousins be acceptable as a couple if one or both are sterile?
How young is "too young" for a man to begin a sexual relationship with a young woman?
However, I feel the writers took it too far at times, almost excusing away the character's behavior through dialogue. For example, there's a reason that the dope-smoking daughter is 14- going-on-30; her age is supposed to conflict with her looks and maturity, making us second guess whether we think it was really WRONG of Karen's fiancée to hit on her, especially if she was willing. Karen went into a pathetic rant right before she left with Steve about Jean (the 14 year old) being partially responsible, and how it's a grey area. It's not.
Violet belligerently attacked almost everyone at the funeral dinner and when Barb protested, she told her she knew nothing about REAL attacks, citing her terrible childhood. No one really shut her down here and she went on quite a long tirade which always feels to me like the writer was expressing their OWN views here, and I'm sorry, but no matter how rotten your childhood was, it doesn't give you an excuse to treat others like crap. Yet another moment where it felt like they tried to ask the audience, "Is it okay to behave badly IF...?"
Later, it's revealed that Aunt Mattie Fey had an affair with Beverly, resulting in a Little Charles. She goes into this self- righteous dialogue about how she's "more than just your fat Aunt Mattie Fae...there's more to me than that." That, I assume, was supposed to imply that because the situation is more complicated than it may appear, that makes it somehow excusable.
Finally, if you weren't uncomfortable enough by the romantic relationship between first cousins, the writer pushes it a step further to test your tolerance: the first cousins are actually half- siblings.
The whole movie felt like one ethics test after another, which is fine, except that the writer also inserted their own answers to the tests through their characters, and I completely disagree with ALL of their conclusions.