An deiner Seite (1999)

An deiner Seite: Directed by Rob Reiner. With Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Colleen Rennison, Jake Sandvig. Ben and Katie Jordan are a married couple who go through hard times in fifteen years of marriage.

“This is a pretty film, often poignant, and a bit too close to the bone at times for my liking. Still, it carries you along quite nicely – making itu0026#39;s point that time grinds marriages down more often than affairs – and then sort of stops.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe leads were great: Willis was really good, Pfeiffer was fantastic (hey, iu0026#39;m a fan, okay). But, the characters were tough to take. The self-pity was intercut with nice bits of comedy, but it felt like Reiner was cutting from a wake to a pratt-fall on occasions. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe final scenes, with Pfeifferu0026#39;s frightening display of multi-emotional skill (at once excellent and utterly ghastly), betrayed the characters. Normality was implausibly resumed, and Pfeiffer came across as at fault for taking the whole film to get real, and Willis looked much relieved that sheu0026#39;d taken the sanity pill and he could quit trying to change himself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enAnd the end was a surprise. I thought there was going to be more: a deeper level of story. But it ended without a sense of closure.”