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Oh I agree, I'm just saying it strikes both chords- from the relatability of the universal struggles of engaging in midlife crisis self-therapy to the empathic specificity in what I cannot understand. The strongest feeling I had during and following my first viewing was that this was the closest anyone has ever gotten to depicting the experience of what postpartum depression might be like, to the degree that a male doesn't sympathize in a manner that deflects to the self, but actually empathize in congruence with the character. So that aspect is overwhelmingly present here, but I think it's the film's greatest strength that it can hold both experiences for the audience instead of defaulting to one, that of fully removing ourselves and diving into this character as well as discovering commonalities back to ourselves slowly over time that really hit home near the end.

knives wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:48 pm I enjoyed the specific nature of much of what we see which feels like real life as if Cody was or knew Marlo as an actual person.

This film is clearly so personal I would be shocked if this wasn't Cody's most autobiographical film, which would also line up in her writing with her second/third kids

And that’s why I find Reitman’s direction so fascinating, but also where I can imagine many’s distaste for his later work comes from. The film is comfortable being all from the voice of women wherein Theron and Cody are offered the most room for voice as his voice is there for small pieces of relation. The two ending moments of Marlo bonding with her male family are emphasized in a way that does show her experiences are shared even by those who it is impossible to truly share it with.

Yeah I agree, it's easy to say that Cody is the heavier auteur, but this is a great example of a film that destroys that theory because Reitman has arguably the tougher job of empathizing unconditionally and somehow formulating a picture where he resigns himself and allows us to do the same. It's definitive directional humility, and when he does universalize the existential experiences it's done in a very subtle abstract way that stems from the pure focus of Theron's specific lived-in character as a known entity who we've had the pleasure to be blended with and reflect back from there.

And I think he has increasingly been aiming for that since Up in the Air. His type of stoic melodrama is an effective contrast to Cody’s fantastical nerves and probably why they’ve brought out the best in each other.