Hey, sorry. I know this sub probably isn’t the best place. I know people will probably suggest tip of the tongue or one of the movie subreddits, but I’ve tried asking a bunch of different places and my posts keep getting deleted. Any help would be appreciated!
It’s something from about, maybe 10 years ago. I remember that because it’s not something I ever watched with my husband. We got married in 2014, so pre-then.
In it, the main character… I think it was maybe Jennifer Lopez? She played a mother to two kids, a boy and a girl. I know that that stuck out to me, because that’s the set I was hoping for (mission accomplished!) and had a husband (Josh Brolin?). I remember throughout the first half it was a pretty mundane family comedy.
She was like in finance or something, real girlboss type. Meanwhile, he was a stay at home dad. Kind of a deliberate inverse of the normal 1950s dynamic. She was really good at her job, and he was great with the kids. Kinda retrograde, but I remember a lot of the comedy coming from that.
One of the things I liked about it was that it didn’t shy away from the problems in their marriage. They fought a fair amount, in a mostly comedic way. One of the better scenes at the beginning had them discuss how, while they don’t really like each other sometimes, they can stick it out for the kids. Looking back, #relatable.
Fuck, maybe it wasn’t Jennifer Lopez. It might have been a smaller name actress with similar energy? I’m just not finding anything on her IMDB page.
Anyway, the movie is one of those that has a midpoint genre twist. Think Dusk ‘Til Dawn. That’s the part I’m hoping will help people help me. It’s really memorable. Or, maybe not lol. So, during the first half Lopez (or whoever) starts to notice little inconsistencies in how her husband talks about his day with the kids. He mentions going to, like, a restaurant that closed last month or seeing a friend of hers that moved away. She starts to dig, and begins to suspect he’s cheating. But she can’t confirm it. The movie is a little ambiguous on if he’s just too careful or if she’s paranoid.
I want to say the movie poster had a lot of purple, if that helps.
So, there’s this scene where they’re lying in bed. And he asks her how her day went. And you think, here’s where she confronts him. But this movie is playing way above that level. Instead, she takes a syringe and plunges it into his neck. And then the screen goes dark.
And then he wakes up tied to a chair. I think it’s in a basement, or maybe a shed? And tied up in front of him are their two kids, the boy and the girl. Both out like a light.
He starts freaking out, looking for whoever did this to them. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees his wife coming down the stairs. Then the camera reveals what she’s holding, a 12 gauge shotgun.
At that point the audience can pretty much guess what’s coming, but he still is catching up. Maybe he tells her to call the police or something? She shushes him, and then puts the shotgun against his left knee cap.
Before he fully figures it out, she pulls the trigger. The gore effects were really cheesy, I definitely remember that now. Real blood doesn’t look like that. But the acting was top notch. You could almost feel the pain he was in.
He asks her why, but she’s silent. She doesn’t want him to understand, just to experience… or that’s what I remember thinking.
She walks to the boy and girl. She points the shotgun at both of their heads, swaying back and forth. He starts to freak out, even through the pain. Yells at her to get away from the kids. She just shakes her head, and then she gestures emphatically at both of them with the gun, before tilting her head in a questioning manner.
This is like the one line I remember “You’re asking me to choose? Jesus Christ, Sarah, they’re our kids. Why?”
She shrugs, and then shoots them both. All the while staring at him. It’s really shocking, because up until that point they’d both been pretty devoted to the kids. But she’s like, broken, at this point. Her eyes, like, there’s this shot where they’re just empty. Maybe it won an award? If not, then it’s a crime because that shot lives with me.
She then pushes their chairs out of the way, sending their bodies sprawling, and smacks the barrel of the gun into his face, blacking the screen again. This time it cuts to the credits.
I remember the credits sequence didn’t have any music. I thought that was kind of a cool choice.
Anyway, I would really appreciate some help figuring out what this movie is, and if it’s streaming anywhere. I’ve been describing it to my husband for the past hour. But I think actually showing it will let him see where I’m coming from. I do need him to understand.
Quick responses would be appreciated. I don’t know how long the drug I used will keep the kids under.