One thing i found unrealistic was how Ben Affleck managed to "call the shots" to his father in law at the end of the film. I know he had the file, but that father in law was a tough nut, might have even tried to kill Ben. And Ben was clearly in a loveless marriage. What I really think would have happened next? Ben divorce Amanda Peet, after almost having a fist fight with the father in law....
your thoughts?
I like the way U think however me being a FORMER New Yarker myself and now a Vermonter, New Yorkers tend to be OVERDRAMTIC to say the least so sometimes U have to throw the Sh!t down and New Yorkers RESPECT this when U can verbelly throw down. Gavin had a Loveless J O B and Marriage which he tries to make the best of it which he has nothing so in life when U have nothing to lose, throw down!
I told ya to turn that jungle music off, we ain't in africa. by Sal the fat pasta azz pizza guy in "Do the right thing" 1989
I would disagree with the characterization of the marriage as "loveless". I think Amanda Peet was very pragmatic, but just because it wasn't flowers and poetry doesn't mean they didn't love each other. (I mean, he almost cried when she said she knew he'd had an affair. I don't think it was the shock of getting caught. I think it was that he'd hurt her, and that she would leave him. So there was some emotion there.) If it was loveless, I think he would have ended it right at the table with her parents. He already had her father by the balls on a felony forgery charge and the ensuing scandal that would cause, he didn't have to stay in the marriage if he didn't want to.
But he didn't say, "Baby, its over." He said he found a way to live on the edge, and asked if she could live there with him. I read that scene as they loved each other (however practical and non-demonstratively they expressed it), he was making a fairly radical change, and he was asking, "Can you still love me?" She could love his as a Wall Street lawyer who had affairs. Could she love him as man who had principles? My two cents.
My guess is that we are supposed to think that Gavin has turned a corner, finally, having seen what Michelle (?) said: You're becoming one of them. I don't recall seeing ANY indications that Peet has the sensibilities/conscience that would enable her to change.
With his shift, I would guess that Gavin has lost respect for her, and would now say "I used to love you" or "I thought I loved you." Grabbing his boss by the b*lls and asserting that he'll do Pro Bono work is just his first step. Probably his next step will be a divorce ... to open the door to a marriage with someone he respects and who will respect the fundamental choice he has made.
I saw his "Can you still love me?" question as having an edge to it, issued with a slightly vengeful or taunting sneer, rather than as a genuine, hope-filled request. I think he knows she is unlikely to change.
In the scene before however, he's telling Toni Collette that she has to forget about him. I think if he was going to get divorced, he would have told Peet to forget about him, and asked Collette if she could live on the edge with him.
I saw it as a marriage between two flawed (or, you know, normal) people who were willing to work for it, rather than a case of "storybook" love where Gavin divorces the evil princess and runs away with his soulmate.
I think he was daring his wife to some degree, but I don't think he would have asked if he didn't want her to say yes. (What if she did, but he still loved his co-worker? "Can you live on the edge with me?" "Yes." "Well, don't.")
But I am sympathetic to your point in that I think Toni Collette is way hotter than Peet.