Cinema: The High Cost of Leaving

Divorce American Style is a slick, cynical film that paraphrases Comedian Ed Wynn's definition of divorce as a hash made of domestic scraps.

In this marital split the protagonist is a suburbanite businessman played by Dick Van Dyke. The antagonist is his wife (Debbie Reynolds), who, although surrounded by a faithful husband, two handsome, happy children and a $49,000 house, nonetheless feels that her marriage is a snore and a delusion. As the two duel downstairs, their boys, who have heard it all before, listen upstairs, giving each parent points on a chart. The marriage game continues in the presence of the...

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