Two for the Road

Marriage Movie Marathon 2

As a follow-up to our marriage movie marathon, I told my husband that we should watch another one of my all-time favorites: “Two for the Road” (1967) starring Albert Finney (the dying dad in Big Fish and that lawyer in Erin Brockovich) and the delightful Audrey Hepburn. I’m a real big fan. And yet again, this is another movie with a top-notch soundtrack. Henry Mancini (Moon River from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s) did the musical score. I first saw this film when I was in High School and it definitely gave me the aspiration and inspiration for my own future married life.

Tagged as a classic film on marriage, Two for the Road’s title alone clearly depicts married life as a journey. The metaphor is just perfect! Just like any road trip, it is bound to hit bumps, steep hills, highways, flat tires and even engine fires! That’s what Mark and Jo Wallace went through as the story of their 12-year old marriage was told in a non-linear manner, volleying the viewer back and forth in the relationship and cleverly using the passing of cars as transitions, and of course using Audrey’s upgrading fashion sense as visual cues to mark the couple’s evolution.

We see them first as a well-heeled husband and wife, bored and bickering at each other, and on their way to the south of France. While they muse about the prospect of divorce, they unintentionally get down into memory lane, remembering the good and the bad, as they traveled the same road where most of their marital breakthroughs happened. The story is actually a summary of five road trips, all of which the couple have taken in different eras of their married life. This was the road where they accidentally wounded up hitchhiking together and falling in love along the way. From finding out they’re pregnant to finally bringing along little Caroline; from tagging along with snobbish family friends to traveling on their own in jet setting style.

Mark and Jo’s marital journey as symbolized by these road trips, if I may say, is an eye-opener for married couples like me and Joseph. We are presented with paradoxes such as the couple being more happy and carefree when they were practically penniless during the early years of marriage, and then ironically becoming hostile and cold when they finally could afford anything they want. They were better-off when they had the cheap car. The ride became worse when their automobiles got more expensive.

There’s a lovely point in the movie which becomes the thesis of the story. One time during their honeymoon days, Joanna sees a silent couple in a restaurant and asks Mark, “What kind of people can eat an entire meal together and not talk?” He then quips, “Married people!” A decade later, they ironically find themselves becoming THAT couple.

We definitely learn a lot from this picture especially at this point in my marriage now with Joseph when we are beginning to have those classic white picket fence dreams – a house with a lawn, a car, our own enterprise, time to travel, a dog, a baby… We are reminded though that a higher class of lifestyle doesn’t guarantee bliss… a luxury car doesn’t exactly make the ride smoother. It’s the road that determines the journey. And unfortunately no matter what type of vehicle we use, it doesn’t change the terrain of the path. Marriage is like a long stretch of cemented highways and bumpy dirt roads combined. No map in any store can tell you where the potholes and humps would be. You’ll just see it when it’s there. Or worse, you hit it first and then know that it was there. The road of marriage may present a lot of surprises along the way that make the trip more interesting, and maybe frustrating most of the time. But one thing’s for sure, marriage is never a one-way thoroughfare. It is always a two-way street.