Movie Review 5

Forget Paris

The Plot

This movie tells a story about a couple who is going to get married, Andy and Liz who has a gathering with Andy’s friends at a restaurant. As they are waiting for the friends to come, Andy tells a story about his friend, Mickey and Allen and their relationship journey. Mickey is a NBA referee who is famous for his strict rule in the game. He meets with Allen when he lost his father’s body during the transition to Paris since he wanted to lay to rest with his armies’ friends during the war. Mickey is into a lot of trouble to find his father’s body. He is assisted by Allen, who is the staff at Airline Company. Mickey and Allen relationship begin when Allen attends Mickey’s father funeral. Later, their story is continuously being told by Andy’s friend who arrives one by one to the restaurant. Mickey and Allen has gone through such a test in their relationship. They have a good start honeymoon phase at the Paris, when in fact Allen is a married women. However, Allen leaves everything behind and decides to marry Mickey. Later, they face with the career issue in which Mikey doesn’t want to let go his career when Allen tells him that she is unhappy. This is because, Mickey always travels to attend the NBA game. Since Allen is unhappy, he decides to quit and get a new life and job. At the same time, Allen got a job and she quite like the job that she is having. At the current time, she is happy, however Mickey is unhappy with his life. Later comes Allen’s father who become another issue that they need to deal with. Overall, Mickey and Allen have gone through a breakup and get-together phases quite a few. The story is continuously being relay from one context to another context until Mickey and Allen arrive at the restaurant.

The character

Mickey

He is a unique character despite of having a trouble family history. I believe his past has shaped him for who he is now. When he enters into marriage, he does not know what he should commit to be a good husband since he does not have a father-figure that he could refers to. So, he is still continuing his single lifestyle such as travelling to a lot of places leaving his wife behind. He loves his career so much, however, that career will make him distance with his wife. Fortunately, he did sacrifice his career for the wife, however he is not happy with his life when he does that. I actually admire his character since I could not see any attachment issue that he has despite of his troubled family past. Besides, I would consider him to be one of the person with type A personality. Type A is a personality type that describes the person as being impatient, rigid, and workaholics. I could see that Mickey is indeed a rigid and workaholic person since he is always stick to the same routine and manages to travel often in order to attend the NBA game at various places. So in a way, he might have a low openness trait as he always stich to his habits and rarely going out to experience new things. Next, I think Mickey is a good character when he decides to give up his career to make his wife happy despite of his miserable. I could see that he has this attitude to improve himself to fix his marriage issue. He also have a self-awareness since he is being reflecting himself and his marriage life. This is portrays when he talks about his marriage life to his friend. I think he has a good social support within his circle. This is because as he reflecting his marriage issue, his friends generally give a good response and indeed telling him what kind of person he is and what aspect that he should improve to fix his relationship. Before that, he still have this kind of ego causing him to be intolerant and insensitive towards Allen’s feeling.  For example, when Allen request him to find a new job, he is hesitant because he loves what he does and said that it is his life as he could not imagine doing something other than his current career. But one thing he forget to consider is the fact that Allen did sacrifice her job to be with Mickey. So it shows that Mickey has not consider Allen’s feeling during that time hence causing a conflict in their marriage. However, since he has make a great effort to fix his marriage issue, it has touch Allen’s feeling. At the end, they are still together despite of the obstacle that they face.     

Allen

I think Allen is a brave woman. However, she is using a wrong medium to unleash her desire by being a cheater in her marriage. She said she is unhappy with her marriage and decides to get out from her former husband life. However, the fact that she is using Mickey as her source of positive experience has lead a great disappointment to Mickey. This show that her character is a little bit selfish by having less consideration towards Mickey. I could not deny that she has a strong trait within herself that is display through her career pathway. She has the charisma and can be independent as well. However, that does not mean she can act like a single person and give another person hope to be with her. Anyway, if she does not have a scandal with Mickey, this story may not be continue. So in a way, it is how the story goes. Next, I would like to talk about how brave she is when she decides to leave everything behind and marry Mickey. She is brave, however I think she is impatient in making her decision. Furthermore, as mentioned before she has the tendency to focus on herself without thinking about Mickey’s situation. For example, when she brings in her father to Mickey’s care she overlooks that Mickey might be uncomfortable with the sudden changes in his life as he already quit his job at that time to make Allen happy. Despite of her character, I actually love how she communicates with Mickey and tell him what she feels instead of just keeping the problem to herself. This shows that she may have a high openness trait as well. The openness trait is being portrayed by her love to arts, enjoys new things and adventure. I think this trait has greatly influencing her to decide to marry Mickey when they actually just know each other within short span of time. And this trait also give her a chance to continue the relationship as she is willing to explore options in her relationship.

The scene

 I love the scene where Mickey talks to one of his friend and he realize that marriage don’t works when one person is happy while the other don’t, it works when both are able to find the balance between it. That is the scene where it helps Mickey to think that it is important for both partners to give extra effort to maintain the relationship.

The lesson

Firstly, I learned that commitment is a really important aspect in building and maintaining relationship. For example, in a relationship, both partners need to be aware of their commitment such that there must be certain things that they need to let go or even do to be able to maintain a good relationship. For example, in marriage one need to realize that they somehow cannot do the things that they usually do when they are a single such as partying every week or even going back home really late. Besides, both partner should also be able to tolerate with each other.

Next, communication is really important in a relationship. Failure to communicate with each other will result in a lot of problem such as misunderstanding. It also may lead to a wrong impression or expectation towards their partner. Understanding each other will not only helps both partner in dealing with their issue but also helps people to rationalize why their partner is behaving like this hence can understand certain problem from their partner point of view. However, people need to be careful when communicating their feelings as the way people talk and what kind of language people use may be misinterpret by other partner. By communicating with each other, people can actually approximate what kind of expectation that their partner has towards them. For example, Allen always talk to Mickey regarding her loneliness and that she is expecting him to understand her. Communication is indeed essential so that people will always update their knowledge about other person that they interacting with.