Kay and Arnold Soames (Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones) have a stale and formulaic marriage, devoid of tenderness. Kay seeks to remedy that when she employs a Maine therapist (Steve Carell) to help them rekindle their former passion. But Arnold resists.
It’s intriguing in that it could have become a Nancy Meyers-type lifestyle-aspiration film, but it stays just on the right side of watchable. All three leads are strong (even if Streep's mannerisms begin to irritate), and some of the therapy discussions are thought-provoking enough to suggest a real depth to the script.
The problem comes from the film’s strange reluctance to explain what went wrong in the marriage. Why can’t Arnold stand to touch his wife? That’s never illuminated. Plus, his U-turn at the end feels unlikely and bolted on, without a convincing motivation for this sudden change of character. And why does the therapist bring everything down to physical intimacy? What about the couple spending an evening simply talking or holding hands? Instead, it’s all about the sex (for example, they are assigned the task of trying it in the cinema) – perhaps because that makes for a more titillating story.
Plus, the music is awkwardly intrusive.
Elisabeth Shue is underused as a woman who works in a bar. She only gets one scene but she's probably the best thing in the film.
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