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Told in an engaging collage of direct camera confessionals, flashbacks, roundtable discussions, and montages, Rob Reiner's THE STORY OF US, a sweet romantic comedy featuring solid performances by Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer, examines the difficulty of preserving marriage in America and the dual lives married couples often must endure. The "us" are Ben and Katie Jordan (Willis and Pfeiffer), a professional, and by all appearances happily married, suburban couple with two well-adjusted children, Erin and Josh; the "story," however, is that their marriage is actually crumbling at an alarming rate, a truth they endeavor to hide from their loving kids. Luckily, they can postpone the admission of dissolution because of the children's departure to summer camp, with the possibility that things will work out in the ensuing months. However, as time passes, tempers flare, Ben moves out, Katie meets a charming divorcé at a cooking class, and, as the inevitable return of Erin and Josh closes to a week, there is no apparent hope of resolution. Will the two be forced to present their kids with an awful fact of life, or can they rediscover their passion for each other and renew their love?
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