My wife likes me.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles — 2.5/5 (rewatch)

I've long not liked this movie, though I've felt wrong for it, and I can now in good faith put it behind me. To be fair, the ending is iconic! Five minutes of a great musical sound bed beneath an overwhelming sense of understanding and empathy. That five minutes can live alone, in isolation, for eternity, as a short movie unto itself. I think it's probably best viewed in that isolation! Because the preceding 90 minutes damage it. Both characters in this movie suck. Steve Martin in an obvious way: I don't like grumps, even when their grumpiness is well-founded. But John Candy also in an obvious way, but harder to point fingers at him because he's got a sadness and can turn that dial in his favor. The movie reminds me of the trouble I had with 'A Real Pain.' I'm not that interested in indulging in bad characters who don't have the ability to fundamentally change. This movie ends, that five minutes of emotional goodwill closes, and Neal Page and Del Griffith will return to who they are, rested after a Thanksgiving meal. That said, it feels like there's a longer movie in here. Neal's troubled relationship with his wife appears in hints, but feels like there was a larger story intended there. If I had to imagine what that was, and how that might have made this better: this movie is meant to be less about a man understanding another man's secret sadness, and more understanding how another person's love (a wife in both cases, and potentially Neal to Del and Del to Neal) can save a person and make them worthwhile. A person they don't need to change for, but want to change themselves for. In the movie, Neal's epiphany is about Del. I imagine in the longer movie, his epiphany is about himself. That's the imaginary movie, though. As it exists, I think this is a movie liked by difficult people.