Big gap…

Contains spoilers 

I looked forward to Animals so much… and I just watched it, the Ben Affleck movie.

I had been seeing clips from interviews with Ben Affleck and Kerry Washington, who plays his wife in the movie, and I just couldn’t wait.

It was a good movie. I enjoyed the performances, the emotions, and the way the story unfolded… then it ended, and I was left with questions… questions that left me feeling a little disappointed.

One of the things that bothered me was Abigail’s infidelity and Mark’s reaction to it. I wanted him to be more upset. I wanted to see the hurt, the anger, the disappointment. I wanted to see what it meant for a man who loved his wife to discover that she had been unfaithful to him.

Is it possible he loved her too much to react the way I expected him to? Or was he trying to hold on to what remained of their marriage? I don’t know. But his reaction felt a little underwhelming to me.

Let’s not talk about Ron… or maybe let’s… the man Abigail was having an affair with.

What was his own play? Was Abigail really in love with him? Was he someone she had developed genuine feelings for, or was he an escape from a marriage in which she felt alone? Was it about love, attraction, validation, or simply the desire to feel something different?

We don’t really get to see enough of their relationship to understand what it was.

And that is where my problem with the story lies.

I didn’t necessarily need a long explanation of the affair. I just wanted enough to understand what Ron meant to Abigail, what she was looking for in that relationship, and why it was worth risking the marriage she already had.

And then, just like that, Ron disappears from the story, leaving us to figure out what his presence was supposed to mean.

I think this is what disappointed me most. The movie gave us a marriage in crisis, a betrayal, and two people trying to find their way through a frightening experience. But when it came to one of the things that contributed to the crisis, it left me wanting more.

Maybe the filmmakers wanted us to focus on Mark and Abigail rather than on the man who came between them. I can understand that. But I also think that when a story introduces something significant enough to change the course of a relationship, it should give us enough to understand its place in that relationship. Just my opinion.

A movie doesn’t have to answer every question. I appreciate ambiguity, and I don’t need every character’s actions explained to me. Sometimes, the questions a story leaves unanswered are the very things that make it memorable… but I’m sure you would agree that  there is a difference between leaving room for interpretation and leaving the audience feeling as though an important piece of the story is missing.

Author: Emaistace

wife, mom, sister, daughter, aunty, friend. writing my everyday thoughts as they pop up. View all posts by Emaistace