Please just strangle that smug couple before I throw something at the screen .. is this the reaction you hoped to evoke Mike Leigh? Or are Tom and Gerri your idea of a "healthy" couple? Are you likewise vapid and sanctimonious? Of course your nebulous framework leaves us only to wonder ...what WAS the message here? yes it made me think, forced me to draw my own conclusions and for that you have again triumphed. These characters stirred up lots of emotion in me. I felt disdain for the heroes (note son's cajoling girlfriend) and genuine empathy/fondness for the tragic ones (all of them).. but then again which were the real tragedies ? Geri and her like are the reason I avoid therapy. Having never struggled herself she is hardly sympathetic. The sanctity of her boring life shelters her from developing real relationships with the fascinating people surrounding her. Ditto Tom. Their shared comfort is wrought with complacency and co-dependence. Neither feels a need to truly relate with other people as they consistently crawl back into each others arms for a nightly sh*t talk about their less fortunate friends. There is nothing wrong with a symbiotic relationship but this one is so lofty and banal I'd rather be single and have a ..well.. personality. that leads us to Mary. poor desperate Mary. She took chances in life that earned her a colorful personality, but scarcely more. She did not settle into monotony yet she found only heartache. She is horribly lonely. Mary's emptiness leads her to vices like alcohol, little red cars and fake friends. Still she is more genuine than the other star players here as she is honest with her misery.