Every “unfortunate in its own way” family would benefit from a psychotherapist. It is a fact. And few couples – at least in Russia – get to the consultation. This is also a fact. The story of spouses who go to a psychologist both at the reception and outside of it discussing complex and uncomfortable topics still seems like a curiosity to many. That is why it is so interesting to watch the heroes of the British mini-series “Marriage”. And the point is not that someone “dissects” their relationship, but that they are generally ready to discuss what hurts.
Are you talking about a heart attack? This is not the case with marriages. They first get sick for a long time, and then they die.
The marriage of Louise (Rosamund Pike from Gone Girl) and Tom (Chris O’Dowd from The Geeks) is not only dead, but clearly unhealthy. For 15 years of marriage, sex has remained only in memories, and all that now unites partners is children, crossword puzzles and the Game of Thrones. Not ready to put up with this, Louise cheats on Tom, because of which both end up in the office of a family therapist.
More precisely – in a pub across the road (and where else – after all, the series is British). Ten minutes before the session, the couple meet there to … yes, just to talk. About past and upcoming consultations, about what is happening in general and how they came to such a life. Tom and Louise sort things out, quarrel and make up, remember the circumstances of their acquaintance and the first sex, fantasize about what their life outside of marriage could be like.
Ten minutes is enough to discuss the state of their union (the original name of the series is State of the Union), and at the same time observe other couples who are consulting with the same therapist.
Lack of sex and adultery are just the tip of the iceberg: the couple has plenty of difficulties
As they immerse themselves in therapy (the viewer does not see the therapist himself, as well as the children and other relatives of Tom and Louise), the characters go through different stages: either they violently resist interference in their lives, or they accuse the psychologist of getting worse. It is understandable – after all, marriage …
“…like a computer: you take it apart to figure out what’s broken, and then you sit surrounded by bolts.
– We can live as we lived: it will not work, but it will look like a good computer.
Lack of sex and adultery are just the tip of the iceberg: the couple has plenty of difficulties. They are based on the total dissimilarity of the characters to each other: the unemployed music critic Tom spends all day playing at Xbox, solving crossword puzzles and complaining about the slow Internet, a clear and collected Louise pulls the whole family on herself and dreams, on the one hand, of silence, on the other About intimacy, mental and physical. At the same time, their problems, apart from disagreements over the UK’s exit from the European Union (“I cried because of Brexit, and not because of some problems in our relations!”), Are painfully familiar and understandable.
Speaking of Brexit. If jokes about him Russian distributors manage to translate well, then the punctuation of the characters still sound sharper and wittier in the original version. So, despite the elegant decision to involve Tatyana Lazareva and Mikhail Shats in the voice acting, it is worth watching the show in English if possible.
And most importantly: each episode of “Family Marriage” lasts only 10 minutes – which means that you can swallow the next episode, for example, at breakfast. Alone or with someone with whom you are – yet? – are connected by common family ties and common problems.