ford@titan.tsd.arlut.utexas.edu (Carolyn Ford) (02/13/91)
MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE
A film review by Carolyn Ford
Copyright 1991 Carolyn Ford
The following musings are not really a review of the movie Mr. AND
MRS. BRIDGE, but are, well, musings. I have not included any
spoiler warnings, because the movie does not really have any surprises.
MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE is one of the most depressing movies I've seen
in a long time. Why, you ask? Because it's about my family. And I'll
bet it's about a lot of your families, too. Granted, my family was
not nearly as wealthy as the Bridges (I'd classify us as comfortably
middle-class), but my mom suffered from the same slow nullification
of her personhood as Mrs. Bridge. How many of us had mom's who were
raised to believe that the most noble aspiration a woman could have
was to dedicate her life to her husband and kids? How many of our
moms ended up lost and completely insecure when we became teenagers
and didn't want her around all the time anymore, and dad was too busy
with his career to give her a sense of importance?
MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE is a most damning view of the "traditional"
family unit and the devastation it has on the women who have given up
all their dreams and talents to serve a family that, after a while,
doesn't even seem to need them anymore. Are they supposed to get
fulfillment from silly painting classes and endless games of bridge
(hmmm ... hadn't noticed that connection to the movie before)? By
keeping their wives completely buffered and protected from everything
outside the home, the husbands functionally and emotionally disable
their wives to the point where they don't even have their own opinions.
As depressing at it was, I liked MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE precisely
because I hated PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED. Were we really supposed to
believe that Peggy Sue could give up all her hopes and dreams and get
fulfillment solely from her kids and husband? I think not! I think MR.
AND MRS. BRIDGE is a sequel to PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED showing us what
really happened to Peggy Sue several years later.
I applaud MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE for challenging our comfortable
image of how "right" the traditional family unit is, and for pointing
out how many people (women) have given up their entire lives for a myth.
Go see it. Prepare to be depressed.