Bye Bye Love is not one of my favorite movies but every time I catch it on TV I always end up watching it. This is a movie that follows three families and in particular three fathers who are struggling to find a way to raise their children and maintain a healthy and happy relationship with them.
The movie starts off with the fathers (Donnie, Dave, and Vic) meeting at McDonalds waiting for their ex wives to drop of their children for the weekend. One by one as the ex wives arrive we see the state of the various relationships. Each relationship seems to be strained in some way and you can only hope that by the end of the movie that somehow it is all resolved.
Donnie played by Paul Reiser at first seems to be the most stable one of the three friends. We soon see that he has false hopes that his ex wife still has feelings for him and that he is in denial about the success of her new marriage. However his denial is far less painful to watch then his 14 year old daughters (Eliza Dushku) feelings of guilt she carries about her parents divorce. By the end of the movie we see that Donnie has accepted his ex wives new marriage and he and his daughter work to improve their relationship.
Dave played by Matthew Modine is the playboy of the group. He has a new young girlfriend who his children have not yet accepted. Even with his new relationship his problem is that he can’t seem to commit to it. He finds himself making friends with the mothers of his child’s sports team only to realize that those friendships are putting his relationship with his new girlfriend in jeopardy.
Vic played by Randy Quaid is in my opinion the most enjoyable character of the cast. He is the angry one of the bunch. While he is a loving a devoted father he seems to be finding it difficult to adjust to single parenthood. He realizes that the relationship he had with his children was not as good as he had thought.
As the movie progresses we witness these three divorced fathers try and start new lives. We watch as they try out new relationships, share recipes, and deal with unresolved issues of their divorces. As a child of divorce, I can relate to a lot of the feelings and emotions that are felt throughout the movie. So often in movies when we see a divorced couple the blame is shifted to one character so that the story can evolve. Bye Bye Love doesn’t put the blame of the divorce on any of the characters. In fact I think that it says that sometimes no one is to blame and what matters is how we love the important people in our lives.
This is a great movie that deals with those emotions that are often hard to talk about after a divorce. This ends up being a feel good movie and while not all of the issues are resolved you get the feeling that the characters are on a path of healing. I would really recommend this movie to anyone. If you don’t catch it on TV, next time you are at your local video store … check it out. I think that you will enjoy it … I know I did.
Other actors in this movie…
Amy Brenneman – Dave’s ex wife
Lindsay Crouse – Vic’s ex wife
Jayne Brook – Donnie’s ex wife
Janeane Garofalo – Vic’s Blind Date
Maria Pitillo – Dave’s new girlfriend
Rob Reiner - Radio Talk show host
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