Couple Films: Rediscovering Love During Conjugal Hero Quest

Date Night: A couple with a problem.

Two horrors and a comedy from the past decade teach us the same lesson: bored couples need an adventure to find their lost special something.

Films like Open Water, Vacancy, and Date Night may not have marriage problems as the main conflict, but star couples in problematic marriages. As the films progress, their protagonists get mixed up in live-threatening plots. In order to survive, they cooperate and eventually resolve their marriage crisis.

 

Case Studies

In 2010 comedy Date Night, worn out by marriage and parenthood, a couple decides to have a special night out. When they take somebody else’s reservation in a VIP restaurant, the mob mistakes them for the thieves of an important flash drive.

In 2007 horror Vacancy, after their car breaks down in a country road, a couple checks in a stinking motel. Once settled, they discover that they are captives of a snuff movie circuit.

In 2003 horror Open Water, a couple on a snorkeling holiday gets left behind and drifts into shark-infested waters.

 

Elements in Common

Each of the three films begins showing a couple in crisis. No matter what the main plot is, the question is the same: Can they find love again? How will their romantic subplot be resolved?

Open Water: busy couple leaving for holidays; they are about to reconsider what is important in life...

Open Water: laptop in bed.

Then, something happens, that puts their lives in danger. Sharks, snuff-filmmakers, or the mob turn their marriage problems into secondary priority.

No matter what the main plot is, the question is the same: Can they find love again?

At the end of the film, the couple realises that they still love each other. The resolution of the romantic subplot brings forth the films’ common theme: Those tired of the conjugal life’s banality, by going through the adventure, learn to appreciate what they have always had.

 

Scenes in Common

The couples go through the same inner journey, from crisis to reunion. The three films feature common scenes as essential turning points of their love stories.

Date Night: mouth guard against intimacy.

First, there is always a scene of sexual dysfunction in the story’s setup. It appears that sex life is the first thing that suffers in a flawed relationship. In Date Night, he asks her to "fool around" in bed, but when she clumsily removes her mouth guard, he loses his appetite. In Open Water and Vacancy, it is the wife who is not in the mood.

Open Water: the wife's refusal of the call. The nudity that comes before this scene will be one of the examples analysed in future post "On Nudity," on this blog. Behold!

A major quarrel is also crucial, during which they bring forth untold things and blame each other for their misfortune. In Vacancy, they quarrel throughout the whole first act, while in Date Night, the quarrel breaks out at the film's midpoint.

Very often, a temporary separation makes them realise how much they need each other. In Open Water, they panic as they wake up to find that they have drifted apart. The moment of separation, however short, can also make them rediscover each other’s hidden virtues. In Date Night, when she comes out of a dressing room disguised as a stripper, he remembers how sexy she can be.

Date NIght: The wife as the husband's fantasy.

Finally, moments of forgiveness drive their inner journey towards resolution. In Date Night, right after their big quarrel, they decide that they want to stay together. It is the first promise that they will make the relationship work. In Open Water, shortly after a huge argument, they say they love each other and share some candy found in her diving suit pocket. We can’t know for sure that they have learnt their lesson, but we can assume that this is the moment that they feel the closest to each other.

"And they lived happily ever after" is not necessary for their love story to be resolved positively. At their last moments, they come as close to each other as ever.

 

The Heroine's Journey

The two horror films share another common point. Both of them start with the husband being stronger and more positive than his wife. He pep talks and plans their survival, while she fears and resists. (She is also the one who turns down the sex proposal.) As the film progresses, though, the wife outgrows her husband and drives the story to the end. Therefore, it is the wife who has the bigger character’s arc. When the husband-mentor fails, she gathers the strength, transforms into a heroine, and finishes the adventure.

Vacancy: the wife takes over as the film's Act III unfolds.

Date Night, on the other hand, has a more balanced approach to its heroes. Not only their weaknesses are comparable, but also their hidden skills surprise each other all the time. Nevertheless, the wife’s journey is still stated as more difficult: "Everything you're doing, I'm doing in heels!" she shouts at him as they climb up a fire escape.

 

The Couple’s Adventure

Almost losing something in order to appreciate it may sound like a banal theme. The protagonists learn their lesson, and the film ends before the audience finds out the endurance of the lesson learnt.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? Can any villain be truly more devastating than the mundanity of habit, in a long-term relationship?

One may ask, what happens to couples who only have their persistence and patience to continue through every day’s mundanity, without sharks, without killers, without adventures to rock the boat? This may well be the most difficult adventure, asking for real every-day heroes.