So did they last?

I'd say no. The real issue with Lenny is himself: despite his outward self-confidence he's insecure and has no idea what he really wants, and as he stares into space at the end it seemed to me he was already questioning where he was and what he was doing, just like before.

It took me forever to see this movie due to the moratorium, and when I finally saw it tonight and sat through two hours of this insufferable boor, I kept thinking that he was, in fact, the original George Costanza.

He won't leave Kelly. He has business connections now and a gorgeous wife....not to mention her father will probably build them a house or something. He may be confused about what he actually WANTS, but what he's ended up with is good.

It's possible she could leave him after a decade or something, though.

.

The whole point of the movie, as I see it, is the challenge of the conquest.

Lila is unattainable sexually until he marries her. Everything about her seems desirable until after they consummate the marriage. It is only then that he sees her little faults as insurmountable obstacles to happiness.

Even so, until Kelly practically throws herself at Lenny in outrageous acts of flirtation, they may have had a chance.

Once he compares Kelly to Lila, in his mind there is comparison. Now the conquest becomes one of getting a WASP princess. Miss Unattainable Defined. Not to mention the Grand Canyon of roadblocks in a fiercely protective, wealthy, father. Lenny throws himself into the challenge with all the gusto his "New York mind" can muster.

Finally, even the father capitulates to Lenny's determination.

It wasn't Kelly he was after so much as the challenge of something that was off limits to him. Once he got what he wanted, he seemed disillusioned once more. Only this time, it doesn't take several days into the honeymoon, it happens on the same day as the wedding!

So no, I don't believe they lasted.

Mr. Corcoran probably ends up paying that $25,000 to Lenny to go away and start over again somewhere else and probably within 6 months of the wedding.




Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H.L. Mencken