Married Life: The Sequel
Mood:  suave

Why in the Sam Hill did I spend half of the last blog post, which was supposed to be a review of Married Life, babbling about wallpaper?  'Tis a real head-scratcher, that.  I never know where these posts are going to end up.

Anyway, I found this intriguing little insight into the John O'Brien character on the DVD Talk site:

The one truly physical character is John O'Brien (David Wenham), another corner in the eventual love pentagon, a hulking, sweating fellow who Rich tells us is the only one among them to actually have "fought the Huns." John looks like he's ready to batter down the walls that separate him from what he wants, just put him in the game, coach. It's also of no insignificant irony that he's the artist of the group, an unpublished author. Perhaps he is capable of doing because he's capable of imagining. 

In that first scene, at least, he certainly comes across as a guy who knows what he wants and is used to taking action.  On the other hand, he's no Ann Landers - when Richard asks him for his opinion on Harry and Pat's marriage, he backpedals and equivocates.   Enigmatic as John is, he functions as a sort of catalyst which enables the lies and deceptions to start doubling back on themselves (mainly thanks to Richard, whose own emotional entanglements prevent him from helping out his best friend).

By the way, I love that term "Love Pentagon". It sounds like a big top-secret classified military building where all the Cupids meet to plot their guerrilla campaigns and heart-smitings.  I hear Lockheed gets most of the arrow contracts.

One final bit of trivia:  the real-life novelist John O'Brien wrote Leaving Las Vegas.  (What happens in Vancouver, stays in Vancouver.)