Genre: Drama
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Mo Buck
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Merritt Wever, Justin Theroux, Anna Chlumsky, Carrie Coon, Brooklynn Prince, Elsie Fisher, Sally Field
Plot: It’s the early morning and Juliette (Brooklynn Prince) comes downstairs, ready for her first day of school. She bugs her mother, Gwen (Merritt Wever) to tie her hair, but Gwen has her hands full with breakfast, she should ask her father or her sister. Juliette doesn’t want to father to do it, he’s not good at tying her hair. Ben (Ryan Gosling) laughs and he says that she never asked him to braid her hair so she doesn’t know. He tries to tie her hair, but fails miserably and Juliette says she’s useless. Gwen tells her daughter that she’ll do it after she eats her breakfast. Elie (Elsie Fisher) comes down to the kitchen and she’s wearing a crop top. Gwen tells her to go change, she’s not allowing her to dress like that for the first day of school. She pleads to her dad, but he tells her to listen to her mom. She rolls her eyes and goes upstairs. The family rush through their morning routine and Gwen leaves with the kids to drive them to school. Ben leaves soon after to work.
On her way to drop Juliette and Elie to school, Elie argues with her mom that she needs to let her express her personality through her clothes and Gwen says that she needs to dress appropriately to get her picture taken, it’s an important day. Elie answers back that her mom may have worn turtlenecks back in high school but that’s not how kids dress nowadays. Gwen says she wore turtlenecks in high school, but was still able to get her father and he’s a handsome man. Elie rolls her eyes and they’re ready to drop Juliette to middle school. She hugs her mother and gets out of the car. Elie asks her mom to put her cellphone on Bluetooth so she can listen to her song instead of the traffic report and Gwen says it’s not worth it, it’s only two blocks away. Elie says she hates her and sits in silence until she gets off the car. Gwen tells her she loves her, but Elie doesn’t say it back. Gwen gets a call from her sister Lily (Anna Chlumsky) and she wishes her a happy birthday. Gwen thanks her and she says it’s finally time that someone remembered, nobody told her yet today, not even Ben. Lily says she’s not supposed to tell her this, but Ben is planning to take to the movie theater tonight as he planned a romantic dinner for her birthday. Gwen says she knew something was up, he’s not one to forget about birthdays. Lily has to go and wishes happy birthday to her sister again before hanging up.
Ben arrives at work and he gets in the elevator with James (Justin Theroux) who tells him that he had a sex with hot lady this weekend. Ben smiles and says that he’s happy for him, but he’s happy with what he has. James asks him if it’s true that he’s only ever been with Gwen and Ben says it’s true. They’ve been together since the first year of his school and they married right after college. James doesn’t believe a pretty boy like him has tried anyone else. They get off the elevator and cross path with one of their colleague, who smiles at Ben. James says that if he ever wants to be with another woman, he’s sure Nancy would say yes in a heartbeat. Ben politely declines, saying he doesn’t wish to sleep with someone else. James tells Ben is one of the good ones and they part ways to get in their offices. Ben realises that he didn’t tell Gwen that he loved her this morning, as he always does, due to all the chaos, so he texts it instead.
Gwen pulls up in the parking lot at the same time as her friend Penny (Carrie Coon). She sees Ben’s text and giggles. Penny wishes her a happy birthday and they hug, so Gwen doesn’t text Ben back. Penny tells her that she’s taking her out to lunch today. Gwen declines, but Penny insists and ends up accepting. Penny asks if she has anything special planned tonight and she says her sister told her Ben is planning a romantic evening for the two of them. Penny says she envies Gwen for having such a perfect partner in Ben. Gwen tells her to hold on, her prince charming will come one day.
Ben is in a meeting and he’s distracted by his phone, as he looks restaurants with takeout options in their area. James whispers to him that he knows the perfect place and Ben asks him what it is. James laughs and says Hooters as Ben rolls his eyes. He looks at the time and he realises that lunchtime started a while ago. During this time, Gwen is with Penny in an Italian place, where they both seem to have a good time. The waiter brings them their meal and Gwen’s nose starts bleeding. Penny asks her if she’s alright and Gwen’s vision gets blurry. Gwen says she feels dizzy and she collapses on the floor. Penny asks for help and a man, who’s a doctor comes to help them. Gwen is convulsing and has blood coming out of her mouth and eyes now. Penny has a panic attack and the waiter helps her. The doctor is giving CPR to Gwen. The ambulance arrives and the doctor says they’re not much they can do and they take her to the hospital. Gwen goes with them. The paramedics ask her if there’s someone they should call and they call Ben, who’s still in his meeting. Penny thinks he answered and starts telling him that Gwen had a stroke, but she realises that she’s on his voicemail. The paramedics say that Gwen has died, she’s unresponsive and they’re not able to make reanimate her. Penny ends her message by saying that Gwen died. Ben’s meeting is finally over and he gets Penny’s voicemail. He turns white as a sheet and collapses in James’ arms.
Ben sits in his living room, in a suit and tie, the eyes still red from all the crying. Elie and Juliette sit next to him, the youngest crying in his arm. He holds her tightly, telling her to stop crying, she must act strong today. He asks Elie if she ate something today and she says no with her head. Ben tells her that she should eat soon, it’s not good for her health. Juliette tells her, while sobbing, that she doesn’t want her to die too. Lily arrives at their house and Juliette runs in her arms. She asks Ben if he’s alright and he nods. She hugs Juliette and she asks to speak with Ben alone. They go in the kitchen and she asks him what’s wrong with Elie. He says she doesn’t eat and she’s barely functioning right now. She says he needs to keep an eye on her, she’s a tough nut to crack, but they can’t let her like this. Ben nods again and she asks him again if he’s going to be alright and he says he will. They tell the kids to get in the van with their mee-maw, May (Sally Field). Ben sits next to her in the car, she seems unfazed. She tells Ben that he needs to put on a brave face today and starts crying. She tells him she knows what it feels like, she lost her husband to similar circumstances. She’s devastated, you never think you’ll bury a child in your lifetime, but here she is. He needs to be brave today and be there for his daughters. They’ll need him now, more than ever. He agrees with her and stops crying.
We see the family in a straight line, accepting the condolences from colleagues and friends. Ben has a blank stare as James arrives. Nancy soon follows, as do other colleagues of Ben. He gets teary-eyed when he sees Penny arrive and she breaks down crying in his arms. He tells her it’s going to be alright. The rest of the ceremony goes well, a touching tribute to Gwen’s life, a loving wife and mother, appreciated by everyone who knew her.
Ben is back home with Elie and Juliette. Juliette asks what they’re eating tonight and Ben says he’ll call her favorite pizza place. Juliette is puzzled as to why they’re eating pizza again. She asks her father if he knows how to cook, and he says he can cook a little. She tells him he should call mee-maw, she knows how to cook. He smiles and says she really knows how to cook, she’s the one who showed mom. He’ll call her right now. Ben goes in his room and calls May. He asks her if she could take Elie and Juliette with her for the next few days, he needs to be alone right now. She accepts, but she asks him if she should worry about him and he says no. He hangs up and crawls in his bed, hugging a pillow. May calls her daughter, Lily. She tells him Ben wants her to have the kids for a couple of days and she wants her to go and live with Ben for a while, that’s going to be better than the hotel anyway. He seems really affected by it all and it could help him feel better, he always liked Lily. May starts crying and she asks Lily how she can not be affected by the death of her sister. She says she realised that whatever she does, there’s nothing that can bring her back. She’ll always remember her sister but crying all day will not bring her back. May says she knows Lily has a heart somewhere in her and she needs to let it out sometimes, or else it’s going to get ugly when it gets all out at once. Lily says there’s no need to worry about her and hangs up.
May knocks on the door and Juliette answers. She asks if she came here to cook for them and May says she didn’t and is surprised to learn they haven’t eaten yet. Juliette says Ben has been in his room for a while and they agreed not to bother him. May says she’ll go check up on him and then they’ll eat dinner. May finds Ben crawled up in his bed, crying silently. She hugs him and tell him that everything’s going to be alright. She says she’ll take the girls with her for a while, but she doesn’t want to leave him alone, so Lily will come stay with him for a while, because she fears for his life. She says losing a spouse is tough, but he’ll get over it and he should get all the help he can get. Ben refuses but May grabs him by the shoulders and tell him that’s what’s going to happen, she’s going to thank him for it later.
Lily comes through the door with her luggage and is surprised to see Ben dressed to go out. She tells him she expected to see him with a noose around his neck the way May was talking, but he says James invited him to go out with colleagues so they can show their support. She leaves him to settle her stuff in a spare bedroom and he leaves in the meantime. He gets in his car and drives. While he drives, he remembers good times with Gwen, like their wedding day. He parks in front of a bar and sits on a stool. The camera slides to the right while James, sitting next to him, asks Ben what he’s doing here, he thought he didn’t drink. Ben says he had to get out of the house to stop thinking about her and now his sister-in-law lives with him. James says it must suck to have the in-laws over, but he gets no reaction from Ben. He then asks him why he doesn’t drink and Ben says it’s a long story, as we see a flashback of him hitting Gwen with a beer bottle that breaks on the impact. James says they have all night to talk about it if they want, but Ben just wants to drink in silence. They then spend the rest of the night drinking at the bar in silence, watching a basketball game.
Ben comes back home really early in the morning and swears when he notices Lily isn’t asleep yet, a light his still on in her bedroom. She comes out and asks him if it was nice and Ben shrugs it off. She gets close to him and can smell the alcohol in his breath. She asks him if he drank tonight and he says he did and she can’t do anything about it. Lily gets mad and tells him that it’s not because she’s dead that he can start drinking again, that wasn’t the deal. Ben gets aggressive and says there’s no deal. Lily reminds him that she knows everything and she could end his life with everything she has on him. He asks her what is it exactly that she has on him and she says she has years of texts showing abuse towards her sister. He says that’s years old and that was before the girls were born, but she says she won’t allow him to become that guy again.
Gwen is getting ready for her wedding day and her mother helps her put on her dress. May notices a bruise on her arm and she asks Gwen what happened to her. Gwen says she hurt herself accidentally and May says she’ll have to cover that up for the wedding. She grabs some makeup and covers it up. When it’s done, May notices Gwen has a weird expression on her face. She’s not sure if she should go ahead with the wedding and is starting to doubt herself. May tells her that she has been in love with Ben ever since she started to get interested in boys, they’re perfect for each other. She tells her that she’s looking gorgeous and Gwen blushes. May then leaves the room. Gwen grabs her cellphone and sends a text to her sister Lily, telling her that Ben hit her, but Lily left her cellphone at the hotel and can’t see it.
The following day, Ben visits his daughters around lunch time and they’re happy to see him. After their meal, Ben and his daughters sit on the couch and remember good times they had with Gwen. Ben asks Juliette if she remembers Gwen and him coming at her first dance recital. Juliette laughs and remembers Gwen trying to cheer her up even if she kept falling and was really bad and how she organized a party for her afterwards to cheer her up. He says her mother was a great woman and he really misses her. Elie says she only has good memories of her, even if she acted like she didn’t like her. She regrets arguing with her in their last morning together and she starts to cry. During this time, Lily calls May and tells her that Ben came back home drunk last night. May says they can’t let him do that, the girls don’t need to see him like that. Juliette asks him what Gwen was like before they were born. Ben says that Gwen was the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. They married right after college. May comes in the living room and tells the girls that their father must leave to take care of some important stuff regarding Gwen. Ben says she’s right, but he stares at her while he leaves, he knows that’s not why she told him to leave.
Ben is back home and looks at Gwen’s will, particularly at one clause: she gives everything to him, but only after the girls turn 18 and he stays sober. He looks at his glass of whiskey on his desk and bangs his wrist on the table. He grabs the will and goes to see Lily. He asks her if this was her idea and she claims to have no idea what he’s talking about. He says he can’t get her money until the girls are 18 and he’s sober. Lily says he has a bad rapport with alcohol. Ben gets aggressive and asks if she thinks he hit his own daughters too. Lily denies it but Ben keeps insisting. Feeling threatened, Lily leaves in a hurry. Ben grabs the first thing he can, Lily’s iPad and throws it at the wall in anger.
Right after their marriage, Gwen was coming back from an office Christmas party, expecting Ben to be asleep but he was up and waiting for her. He’s obviously drunk. He asks her who was there and she says she was just out with colleagues and he gets upset because he knows that he was there. She says that of course he was there, he works with her. He grabs her by the arm and says that he warned her not to hang out with him again and he slaps Gwen on the face. Gwen gets teary eyed and she tells Ben she’s pregnant. He’s taken aback by her revelation and sits in silence. Gwen then takes control of the situation and tells him he needs to get sober, otherwise she won’t allow him near his child. She says that when he’s sober, he’s the sweetest man on Earth, but alcohol turns him into some monster and she can’t have that in her life. She begs him, but he sits there silently, without moving. Gwen gets upset that he can’t make that kind of commitment and he shoves her to the his right, grabs his keys and leave as Gwen cries.
Back in the present, Ben joins James at a bar yet again, clearly drunk this time. He’s surprised to see him again tonight and he tells him that he’ll grant his wish to sit here in silence one more time. Ben says he wouldn’t mind talking tonight, he has a lot on his mind. James says that’s understandable. He says it’s possible that he leaves him earlier tonight because a woman on the dance floor has been flirting with him all night. He teases Ben and says that he should look at women too, to slowly get back in the game and Ben turns around. He starts to look at the dance floor, uninterested, until a woman smiles at him. He stares at her and she slowly starts to morph into Gwen. Ben shakes his head and looks elsewhere as James buys his drinks after drinks. James grabs him by the shoulders and smashes his glass against the bar. James looks at him and asks what’s wrong and he says, bluntly, that he used to beat Gwen. James is surprised by the revelation, saying everything seemed perfect between them. He says he needs to get sober to get to keep his daughters. He’s agitated, he claims Lily is trying to take them away from him, calling her all sorts of names and saying how he wished he beat her up too so she’d keep her mouth shut forever. James is visibly distraught by everything his friend his saying and doesn’t notice him leaving before it’s too late.
He goes back home late at night, struggling to open the door. He notices the house seems empty, almost too empty. He notices some things missing, but it’s when he goes in Juliette’s that he realise the most important things that are gone… his daughters. He rushes back out and drives off in a hurry, even though he’s not in a right state to drive.
Ben barges into May’s house screaming to get back his daughters. It wakes up everyone and he first May who tells him to calm down, it was their own choice to come here. He pushes her away and says she turned them against him. Lily enters the living room and begs Ben to listen, but he’s fuming. He gets close to her and tries to shove her down, but he stops dead in his tracks when he hears Elie’s voice.
Earlier that day, Juliette is wandering around the house and knocks a table down accidentally and she thinks she broke Lily’s iPad. Since Lily is out for groceries she goes to Elie for help. Only the screen is broken and they can’t turn it on. Luckily Elie is tech-savvy and she wonders if they can still see what’s saved inside so at least everything is not lost for Lily. She plugs the iPad in her Mac and looks at random files. Juliette says they should stop looking when Elie sees horror on her screen. Juliette innocently asks if that’s their mom as Elie wipes a tear off her face.
Elie tells her father that they saw everything and they chose to come here. The dark living room is lit up by red and blue sirens as Ben starts to cry. The sound fades out as the policemen knock on the door. We see James at the bar texting Ben that he’s sorry, but he did the right thing. The movie ends with a zoom in on Ben’s face, leaving his fate up to interpretation.
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