MovieChat Forums > While We're Young (2015) Discussion > the ending...

the ending...

posted 9 years ago by JRPradio09
3 replies | jump to latest

I really enjoyed this movie, but I wish they wouldn't have decided to adopt in the end. There is so much of that "you can't happy without kids" bunk in the movies, and in real life. Cornelia even says in the film that kind of attitude is condescending. I think it would've been more interesting had they decided they were fine with not wanting children.

[–] Thomasina 9 years ago

I wish they wouldn't have decided to adopt in the end. There is so much of that "you can't happy without kids" bunk in the movies, and in real life.

I have now posted this approximately a billion times, but they were never fine with not having children. The movie makes it very clear that every time Cornelia says something about having decided to be childless and being happy with that, she is lying--both to others and to herself--because her demoralizing struggle with infertility has convinced her that she doesn't have another option. Cornelia clearly thought it was easier to affect a fake anti-parenthood attitude than to admit to herself and others (even her father) how painful it was to go through the failed infertility treatments. And Josh never even pretended that he was okay with being childless; he constantly brings up the subject of trying to have kids again throughout the movie.

While I certainly understand you resenting that society sends people who have decided to be childless a constant message that they can't possibly be happy, that was not what this movie was about. Cornelia and Josh were never people who didn't want kids. This movie isn't making a blanket statement that "one can't be happy without a child"; it is saying that people who desperately want children (like Cornelia and Josh did) can't be happy without them, no matter how many times they try to claim to themselves and others that they are really fine. This rang completely true for me, since I have known a lot of people who have had infertility issues, and some of them had gone through very long and painful processes before admitting to themselves and everyone around them that they just won't be able to conceive.

[–] timlin-4 9 years ago

if you're not raising a black man's baby you're not living

[–] madmaxmedia 9 years ago

I was fine with it, I think after the awards dinner it establishes that they realize being happy has nothing to do with making your own ice cream, and that your age is not your outlook on life. Also, Josh goes to sleep at his friend's house, and the friend confesses that having a child is not necessarily the meaning of life either (though he loves his baby of course.)

Basically you can make your own happiness regardless of your age, it's up to you to choose your own path. Or something like that. For them it involved deciding to adopt a child, but the movie doesn't present the statement to me that you have to have a child to be happy or find yourself.

I do get your point though, for me the scene with Josh and his friend counterbalances it.