My Best Friend's Wife (2001)

The late '70s. Vietnam has ended. Watergate has come and gone. Women are burning their bras. The Fonz and Charlies Angels are everywhere. Teens are borrowing the family car to drive to Manhattan with hopes of being picked to enter Studio 54. It is a time of freedom. A time of experimentation. A time where all fantasies can come true - Unfortunately, it is no longer the '70s. How has the "excitement" of the 70's turned into the "blandness" of today? That is the question that plagues Steve Richards and Eric Meyer in the comedy "Grownups." Steve and Eric are average guys living average lives with their average wives in the small suburban town of Freehold, New Jersey. Having been born, raised, and schooled in the Garden State, they are now, in their early 30's, starting to realize that something is lacking in their lives. It's not that their lives are not turning out as expected - it's that they're turning out EXACTLY as expected. Both they and their wives Ami and Claire are dealing with the reality that they are no longer watching MTV, but instead find themselves flipping channels to VH1. They have become grownups. Or at least they are supposed to be. But all four are having trouble dealing with it, and Steve has a job offer in San Francisco. It's something new, something exciting. Yet everybody he knows, everything he has is in Freehold. But maybe that is exactly what he needs. Claire has a great job, great friends, and a great marriage. Moving cross country isn't even a problem for her. But is her lack of problems her problem? Ami, having dropped out of college with twelve credits left, works at a flower shop, biding her time till she can get Eric to understand what she knows deep down what she wants to do - be a mother. In these modern times where phrases like "two income families" are the norm, is it wrong for a woman to want to stay home and raise a family? According to Eric and Ami's passive-aggressive mother who refuses to accept that her daughter is an adult, that answer is "yes". And finally Eric. Eric has married his high school sweetheart, has a good job, his first house, yet he jokes about all the things he's missed in life. How he's never ridden a motorcycle. And having been with one woman his whole life, he loves to make silly jokes about how he, Ami, Steve, and Claire should "swap". After Steve's job opportunity in San Francisco falls through, he comes up with a plan. A plan to do something "wild." A once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the free-thinking lifestyle of the '70s. What if Eric's "joke" became "reality"? "So you don't mind that you missed Woodstock?" he asks a reluctant Eric. "Plato's Retreat? Who'd want to hang out in Hef's grotto with James Caan and three dozen Playmates, when you can grow up with Reaganomics and Rock Hudson's declining health?" Eric, of course, deep down, wants to do it. But convincing his lifelong friend is just the beginning. How does one ask his wife to try something that breaks so many taboos? And even if the answer is "yes," what then? What about the ramifications? And even if everything goes according to Steve's "plan," is it really enough? Will these four be able to move on with their lives and accept the fact that it's time to start acting their age? And could going through with it destroy their marriages and friendships?