Gerald's wife, the selfish cow!
Can we talk about how shallow that wife was? The anti-Tammy Wynette? Sheesh, as soon as the ski holidays and ballroom dancing were over, she clears off faster than a set of velcroed stripper pants!
shareShe actually makes it quite clear that she's leaving because her husband lied to her for 6 months.
shareThe above poster is right. She said she could take not having the lifestyle they'd had & even the indignity of her neighbours seeing the bailiffs take their stuff but not his lies. Losing your job sucks but he should've told her & they'd have faced it & worked out a plan together.
EDIT: I like to think after the movie Gerald would've done some grovelling about how not involving her & lying about their situation was wrong and that after a long chat they'd have reunited, downsized & made the above plan to get back on their feet together.
I think she could have forgiven the lies given that he was likely depressed and was hoping to slide into a new job before the bills piled up. I prefer to see Gerald end up with Beryl.
Save the rhinoceros!
Beryl?!?! Beryl was, like, 20 years old. are you thinking of one of Horse's older relatives that was there?
but i agree with the above poster - i think Gerald's wife was in 'reaction' mode when she threw him out, and they probably worked it out afterwards. their marriage seemed pretty good, and he had a new job by the end of the movie.. her reaction was probably based on being hurt that he didn't confide in her, so if she wasn't shallow, she could probably forgive him once he opened up to her about why he'd hidden it and how it had made him feel to be unemployed and keeping secrets from her. if she truly *was* shallow, she'd likely be mollified by the ski trip he could take her on now.
my opinion, though, is that she wasn't shallow. they had an affluent lifestyle, and she enjoyed that, but that isn't the same as being shallow. she was a lady who loved her husband and was hurt he didn't open up to her when he was going through a crisis. can you imagine how crappy she must have felt when she realized the stress she'd been unknowingly causing him over the last few months, pressing him for something she thought they could afford but he knew they couldn't?
I think you need to rewatch. The wife left for good. She didn't turn up at the grand finale dance scene either. That would have hinted at a reconciliation. Beryl, however, was there and she gave Gerald a flirty grin.
http://youtu.be/oHg5SJYRHA0
i'm not exaggerating when i say i've watched this movie at least 100 times, and you can rest assured i'll be watching it again ;)
you're right - she doesn't come to the event. give that some thought. she had a loving, stable marriage to a man who gave her an affluent, respectable life. she's just found out he didn't open up to her about a major crisis he's been going through for six months that affects both of them. he's hidden something that's been hurting him and he's lied to her. she says it herself when she says she can cope with losing all the luxury items that were repossessed and the shame of having all the neighbours see it. what she's upset about is that he didn't tell her. she says it herself. she kicks him out as soon as she finds out, which is, at most, two days before the show. she probably doesn't even know about the show - when would she have found out about it? even if she had, do you really think she would have gone?? think about what Gerald has said about his lifestyle and attribute that to his wife - again, there is a difference between keeping 'a standard of living' and being as shallow as you're accusing of her being - can you see her sitting in a working man's club watching her husband strip? as well, the show is only two days after she's kicked him out - she's likely still angry and not ready to think about reconciling. but keep in mind that their generation is not as quick to divorce as the younger ones are, so if Gerald apologized to her and handled things correctly, it's likely, if not probable, that she would forgive him. i disagree that one flirty smile from a pretty young thing is enough to make us think they get together - and if it does indicate that, that speaks more about Gerald's personality than anything, that he would get dumped by his wife of how many decades and jump in bed with the first young girl who smiled at him just days later. but i think that smile is just that - a smile. think about it, even, from Beryl's position. she's a gorgeous young woman who is watching a handsome older man doing something fun and sexy that older men don't normally do. i'd smile at Gerald, too! that doesn't mean i'd want to date him, and i don't think it means Beryl does, either. you're right, though, that his wife coming to the show would indicate a resolution, in the same way that Mandy coming with Nathan but not Barry indicated a resolution for Gaz. i don't think, though, that her not coming is indicitative of anything. it's definitely not hinted at that they reconcile, but given the state of their marriage in all other aspects and the reason she's upset, there is more than enough room to believe they may. :)
Well, I see your point but I still dislike this wife character. Did she work? If she wanted the finer things then she should be out there working for them, instead of shopping up and down the High Street booking ski holidays. Gerald gave her a nice life - pretty house full of nice things, dance lessons,etc. Then the economy took a downturn. If their marriage was so rock solid, then why did Gerald go to such lengths to conceal his unemployment? He must have feared she would react badly. Then she did. I just couldn't imagine walking out on someone you love just because they are suffering from the dejection of unemployment. Where is the compassion in that?
The wives/ex-wives in this film are not sympathetically portrayed. Even Gaz's ex-wife is seen in her big house with the triple-glazed windows. She may have married for love, but it looks like she married for financial comfort too.
Anyway,I haven't counted by I am sure I have seen this close 100x too. Despite my dislike of the wfie, I love all the other characters. The story is very sweet, about friendship and surviving through hard times together. Great gem of a film.
http://youtu.be/oHg5SJYRHA0
i agree with you - i don't particularly like her either, because there isn't much shown in the movie to make us like her. but i like Gerald, and he loves her, so that counts for something in my eyes. and yes, i agree Mandy certainly married up, and likely for financial comfort.
i love your assessment of the film - it's fantastic, from the characters to the dialogue to the score.. no matter how many times i see it, i laugh and cry each time - the sign of a great movie :)
She didn't throw him out because he was unemployed. Didn't you watch the movie? It was about him lying to her. The woman that he loved. Of course she was brokenhearted about that.
And to many men their work is very important to them. And when they lose that job it's like they lose a part of themselves. I think Gerald was like that. It wasn't that he thought that she would freak out. It was that he was too proud to admit to his wife that he didn't have the good job anymore. But that was on him and him alone. She probably would have been fine with it. It was the lying that hurt her.
I;m not sure that Linda got pissed that her nice lifestyle supposedly went down the toilet. She was never there during the day when everyone went to Gerald's house, and they were there are a few times. I think she did work, as they couldn't have paid the mortgage on that place with just Gerald's benefits, they were obviously behind on the mortgage but that sort of place would have been hard to pay for on just one salary, there is no way he could have pulled that off for over six months. If I had been here I would have been annoyed, not just the shame of the neighbours watching but if I hadn't worked and had known, she could have gotten work to prevent this happening. He was a decent guy but it was silly of him to keep lying like that, he must have known it would have all come to light eventually. I think he kept it hidden because pf pride, which is a foolish thing to do, but given what he said to Gaz after they pulled the gnome prank it was obvious he thought he could find work before she found out
The symbol that you sent me isn't a pentagram.' Sinister
Linda must have lived in a bubble. Gerald didn't just lose his job at a place that was still operating, the entire factory was shut down. How could she not know that the largest employer in town was shut down and a lot of people were out of work? Seems like it would have come up when she was around her friends, some of whose husbands had probably also lost jobs.
sharefurthermore, to expand on something i said in my last post, give some thought to what you're saying about Gerald. he is a kind, intelligent, respectable man who had a good marriage. he didn't keep the secret from his wife because he didn't want to be with her - he kept it from her because he didn't want to worry her.. because he loved her. but now she's found out and she's thrown him out. and what you're saying is, instead of picturing Gerald as an honourable man who would go back and apologize to the woman he loves and sort out their marriage, you'd rather see him as the kind of man who, two days after his marriage hits a rough patch, goes and picks up a woman 30 years younger than him?? man, that would definitely change my opinion of him.
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