{"id":5669,"date":"2019-03-27T19:54:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T19:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=5669"},"modified":"2020-05-29T10:58:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T17:58:20","slug":"how-us-echoes-the-two-halves-of-a-child-of-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/how-us-echoes-the-two-halves-of-a-child-of-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"How &#8216;Us&#8217; Echoes The Two Halves Of A Child Of Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I don\u2019t have many memories of my parents happy. In fact, my childhood memories of my parents remain in a constant state of alert, where happiness always felt fake, waiting for the bottom to fall out. Maybe that\u2019s why my biggest takeaway from Jordan Peele\u2019s sophomore feature,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/us\/272263\"><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Us<\/span><\/i><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">, wasn\u2019t purely its visceral horror of a young mother fighting off her\u00a0doppelg\u00e4nger, but how it deftly navigates the mentality of being a child whose parents never properly got along. The duality within\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Us<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0doesn\u2019t just extend to issues of race and class, but our own history as individuals and the generational mistakes, specifically surrounding our parents, that we hope never to make ourselves.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Note: Spoilers will happen from this point on &#8211; you&#8217;ve been warned.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OqGNWB3ceSs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">We first meet Adelaide (played by Madison Curry) as a child in 1986 attending a carnival with her parents. Her dad plays carnival games, at one point winning her a t-shirt, but it\u2019s more evident that he\u2019s interested in playing the games himself than actively bonding with his daughter. Addie\u2019s mother is perpetually frustrated, believing she can\u2019t even use the bathroom because her husband won\u2019t watch their child. This is a family that\u2019s been fractured for years and what should be a fun family bonding experience looks like little more than a last-ditch effort to fix the unrepairable.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In an effort to\u00a0escape her squabbling family Addie is drawn to the beachside funhouse that holds her double. Coming after her parent\u2019s recent squabble, which she watches with silent stoicism while walking behind them, this interaction with Red is the first division in Addie\u2019s personality. Her parents chronic unhappiness and Addie\u2019s need to escape forces her into a situation where she is literally kidnapped and chained somewhere else, a \u201cSunken Place\u201d where the Addie who believed her parents might be able to transcend their issues is forever gone and in its place is her mirror image.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The two\u00a0Addies\u00a0act as two halves of a child of divorce. Where children often feel literally torn apart by their squabbling parents, the dueling\u00a0Addies\u00a0are literally on different planes of existence. When the mirror Addie is found by her parents she doesn\u2019t know how to speak, yet her mother assumes she is traumatized by being lost. This Addie, already growing up in a world of violence and chaos, seems confused yet not unfazed by her parents&#8217; constant fighting. Like many children of divorce or trauma, she\u2019s sent to a therapist, with Addie\u2019s mother\u00a0saying, \u201cI just want my little girl back.\u201d Her parents are both unsure of what their daughter has endured but also fail to see their own complicity in the matter. As far as they know, Addie is affected by the events in the funhouse, not their own distaste for each other &#8211; or the fact that acrimony between them is what drove her to get away from them in the first place.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The mirror Addie grows up, becoming the \u201cperfect\u201d child and woman, played by Lupita Nyong\u2019o. As Red &#8211; the original Addie &#8211; recounts her life to mirror Addie in the film\u2019s climax, the duality of a divorced child comes to fruition. We learn that in the\u00a0real world\u00a0Addie is a ballet dancer with a happy family, while Red has suffered pain, isolation, and silence in the world of the Tethered. Though Addie has secrets and lies in her memory, she has presented herself as a normal, unaffected woman. As far as most can see, her parents\u2019 unhappiness hasn\u2019t tainted her. Her secrets are more psychological, buried and frightening. For Red, despite missing years of her\u00a0parents&#8217; deteriorating relationship, the damage was done well before that and has only manifested further with her time underground. They are both damaged women by the effects of their upbringing;&#8217; mirror Addie is just better at hiding it.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5759\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5759\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5759\" src=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-1024x641.jpg\" alt=\"Adelaide Wilson doppelg\u00e4nger Red (Lupita Nyong'o, foreground) and Zora Wilson doppelg\u00e4nger Umbrae (background, left) in &quot;Us,&quot; written, produced and directed by Jordan Peele. (Credit: Universal)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"641\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-1024x641.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-768x480.jpg 768w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-500x313.jpg 500w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita-400x250.jpg 400w, https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/us-movie-lupita.jpg 1079w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5759\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adelaide Wilson doppelg\u00e4nger Red (Lupita Nyong&#8217;o, foreground) and Zora Wilson doppelg\u00e4nger Umbrae (background, left) in &#8220;Us,&#8221; written, produced and directed by Jordan Peele. (Credit: Universal)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The film\u2019s presentation of romantic relationships after Addie\u2019s childhood is also fascinating from a divorced perspective, as Addie\u2019s marriage to Gabe (Winston Duke) continues this idea of perfection and a rejection of her\u00a0parents&#8217; unhappiness; she\u2019s avoided becoming her parents. Yet there are subtle chinks in their relationship that imply Addie hasn\u2019t avoided all the issues her parents had. She remains guarded and closed off, and he attempts to brush aside Addie\u2019s distress at visiting Santa Cruz, having been completely blindsided by her admission of what happened to her in her past. In all their time\u00a0together\u00a0she never told him what happened in the funhouse, keeping portions of her life a secret from him and leading to questions of trust issues between the pair.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">This is contrasted with the relationship between Kitty (Elisabeth Moss) and Josh (Tim Heidecker). These two openly seem to hate each other, with Kitty mentioning she sometimes dreams of murdering him. Their jokes vaguely carry an air of complacency; there\u2019s no love, they\u2019ve just yet to\u00a0actually divorce. Yet when their respective\u00a0doppleg\u00e4ngers, Dahlia and\u00a0Tex, arrive, it shows their surface disdain for one another appears to be deceiving. As Kitty lays bleeding to death on the floor, the camera pans over to Josh from her perspective. She seems to be genuinely upset that he\u2019s gone and the last few moments of her life are of her dragging herself across the floor trying to get closer to him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">When it comes to the relationships between the\u00a0doppleg\u00e4ngers,\u00a0Tex\u00a0and Dahlia, as well as Red and Gabe\u2019s double, Abraham, there is absolutely no love presented between them. When\u00a0Tex\u00a0dies Dahlia feigns crying before starting to laugh, and Red is more intent on confronting Addie than caring about her children or husband, speaking of them as burdens she has been cursed with rather than family she truly loves. For Addie, the relationships of the Tethered is what happens when one absorbs all the worst lessons of a parents&#8217; divorce. Cynical isolation is the result. Relationships aren\u2019t posited on love but control and dominance. For a child of divorce, this is the world\u2019s greatest nightmare: to not only have the same damaged relationship as one&#8217;s parents, but one that is worse and that keeps the cycle going. As someone who reiterates regularly that love doesn\u2019t exist, this element of\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Us<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0is the most frightening, that every relationship can only be controlling and doomed to failure.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">This makes\u00a0<\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Us\u2019<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0ending a bit of a fairy tale, with Addie and her family escaping the Tethered. Addie kills Red (or does she?) and, in essence,\u00a0lets\u00a0go of her past traumas. She\u2019s able to now be a committed mother and wife, breaking the cycle of sadness her parents endured. But with the knowledge that Addie IS the Tethered, and that Red\u2019s vengeance was justified, the movie ends with a sly bit of cynicism. That children, regardless of how well they hide it, will always be scarred. The question is can they avoid showing it to the ones they love? And, as Addie\u2019s son Jason proves by putting down his mask in the final scene, can the next generation finally get\u00a0things\u00a0right?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:220,&quot;335559739&quot;:220,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t have many memories of my parents happy. In fact, my childhood memories of my parents remain in a constant state of alert, where happiness always felt fake, waiting for the bottom to fall out. Maybe that\u2019s why my biggest takeaway from Jordan Peele\u2019s sophomore feature,\u00a0Us, wasn\u2019t purely its visceral horror of a young [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,58],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-5669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-horror","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13518,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5669\/revisions\/13518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}