Some Are Amused, Some Aren’t: It’s ‘War’
Regarding Gail Motil’s Dec. 31 letter denouncing “The War of the Roses”: I went with my wife of six months to see the movie and we both laughed a lot (probably at the moments Motil found “inappropriate”).
Ms. Motil, you missed the point of “WOTR.” Danny DeVito made a dark cartoonish movie based on a few painful kernels of marital truth. It didn’t male-bash; it workaholic-bashed. If I was a guy (or a woman for that matter) who neglected his/her marriage in pursuit of the next rung up on the corporate ladder to the extent that Michael Douglas’ character did, I’d be in for trouble. Maybe not dog pate or crunched sports cars, but some heavy stuff nonetheless.
Films have been treating this greed-obsession-ooh-so-’80s problem for years. “The War of the Roses” just took it to the hilarious illogical extreme.
One of the best things movies can do is hold a mirror up to society. Sometimes the view ain’t pretty.
TODD BISSON
Hollywood
Only good movies
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