This post contains spoilers.

Some thoughts after having watched the film:

• Both leads were really good.
• I felt deeply uncomfortable throughout the whole movie.
• I’m normally a fan of realism but the realism of social awkwardness and anxiety was a bit much. (Second-hand embarrassment is real.)
• The film highlights America’s gun problem, but more subtly digs into society’s drinking problem which I think was a bigger deal in this movie.
• I think that, in the events following the big reveal, Charlie’s behavior was much more problematic than Emma’s was.
• It’s interesting that people needed there to be some “acceptable” explanation for Emma’s behavior, to the point that they would tell lies to themselves and others to feel better. Charlie needed to conjur some traumatic event in Emma’s life to explain the thing and fabricated this narrative, which Mike and Rachel even acknowledged as a valid reason. Sometimes reality provides us with no good reason at all.
• They both could have benefited from delaying the wedding and going to couples therapy.
• I like how early in the film, they make such a huge deal out of their DJ smoking heroin which, by the end, felt so small in comparison to everything else going on.
• Everyone in this film had unresolved issues and coped rather poorly.
• In Rachel’s “worst thing she’d ever done,” she was quick to absolve herself because it magically worked itself out and there was no harm done. She did not grant this same grace to Emma.
• What I found most striking and sad was how Charlie and Emma’s cute quirks and traits, like breaking into humor during hard times or role playing their first meet-cute, just fell flat when things were at their lowest.
• Ultimately they were able to start over, and I think that was the healthiest thing they did. It serves as a great life lesson: it’s never too late to step back, take a deep breath, and start again. (And on that note, I love how it ended the way it started.)