Don't let the back of the box fool you, this movie is depressing as hell. It's brilliantly written, solidly acted, and very well directed, but it will make you hate life. If you're looking for a depressing movie, or you fancy yourself a "film buff" and want to see a well-made movie, get this. If you read the box and think this is a triumphant love story, you're wrong. Spoilers after the jump.

Basically, the plot is this: Gorgeous young couple falls madly in love and has a whirlwind first few years of marriage. Then the woman gets pregnant and they stop doing anything fun, move to the suburbs, and turn (outwardly) into the Cleavers. Both of them are miserable, both of them cheat on each other, and both of them hate their lives.

Then, one day, the wife has the idea that they can sell the house and car, give away most of their furniture, and move to Paris. Apparently the plan is financially sound, they just have to get past the social stigma of not only leaving for no reason, but also of her supporting the family. Apparently the plan is for the husband to "find himself" while the wife works as a secretary for a "big government agency" in Paris. It's never clear which government agency, she switches from the consulate to the embassy to the UN throughout the movie.

Eventually the husband loses his excitement for the idea, prompted in part by a busty secretary that he continually sleeps with as well as a promotion to a much better job. Ironically, the promotion came in response to him sending off a "screw you" letter to a subsidiary because he was on such a high from the Plan.

Anyway, he decides that moving may not be a good idea, and the wife soon falls pregnant. The husband uses this opportunity to reveal that he's been cheating on her, and he doesn't want to go to Paris anyway. The wife replies that she never loved him, and she's going to Paris whether he likes it or not.

The wife ends up giving herself a homemade abortion with a rubber tube and a pot of hot water. Unfortunately she knowingly does this about a week too late, and ends up dead. The husband, and the neighbor she's been sleeping with, are devastated.

That's it. No moral, no happy ending, just the horrible drudgery of everyday life finally gets to the point where a woman would give herself a deadly, morally ambiguous medical procedure just to get the hell out of her situation. It's made clear that the husband never recovers, and the rest of the characters disavow all knowledge of the couple. The movie ends with one of the other husbands in the neighborhood staring blankly at his wife as he slyly turns off his hearing aid.

The whole thing is very depressing, though it would have gotten a much higher review if the synopsis on the back of the box didn't lead you to believe it would be this triumphant victory over drudgery.