Everyone has their own way of coping with divorce.
"If you hear from Claire....tell her I hate her guts. And I hope she dies of vagina cancer."
Dick Romans
The Week is a 2015 indie comedy film written by and starring Rick Gomez (of Band of Brothers and Final Fantasy VII fame). The film is directed by Jon Gunn and John W. Mann. Also stars Joelle Carter, Richard Speight Jr., Amanda Detmer and James Madio.
Gomez plays Dick Romans, a once-famous and now-disgraced TV star. He discovers that his wife Claire has filed for a divorce on the week of their anniversary. He'd had a week's worth of celebrations planned, and opts to do them anyway since they're paid for. He drags along the caterer Lenny whom he hopes to make a love connection with.
Tropes:
- Amicably Divorced: Dick and Claire become this by the end.
- And Starring: Rosemarie DeWitt as Claire.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Dick attempts one with Lenny - only to get shot down.
- Awful Wedded Life: Lenny's was this, but she stayed married for the sake of their son.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dick signs the divorce papers and appears to take a road trip to process the situation. It's left open whether he and Lenny will hit it off or he'll take this new career opportunity.
- Break the Haughty: It soon becomes clear that the entire film is one of these for Dick.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dick's lawyer Neil advises him to patch things up with Claire because the horoscope says this particular month would be a terrible time to get a divorce.
- Canine Companion: Dick's dog is constantly by his side.
- Career Resurrection: In-universe. Dick is offered a new TV deal but the film ends ambiguously as to whether he'll take it or not.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Jaron that keeps sending Dick angry texts. He's the new network president, offering Dick a TV deal.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded. The day of Dick's public meltdown that led to his career tanking - the same day Lenny's husband died.
- Divorce Assets Conflict: Averted. It's said that Claire just wants a quickie divorce, with as little pain as possible.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Dick is very annoyed when Tommy and Jessie reveal that they did get the email cancelling everything, but chose to come up anyway out of pity.
- Downer Beginning: The film opens showing Dick's TV interviews getting steadily worse and worse, culminating in his career tanking.
- Face/Heel Double-Turn: At first we're supposed to think of Claire as the bitch who dumps Dick the week of their anniversary. As the film goes on, we start to see that maybe she wasn't unjustified in doing so.
- The Finicky One: Dick says this of Claire.
- Foil:
- Dick's brother Mickey. While Dick is washed up and his Glory Days are behind him, Mickey is a successful award-winning musician - and considerably nicer.
- Claire for Lenny in some ways. Their marriages parallel each other. Both were happy initially but they fell out of love with their respective spouses. Lenny opted to see the marriage through to the end despite her unhappiness, while Claire has just called it quits.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Carrying on from the above. Dick appears to be the foolish sibling, while Mickey is the responsible one.
- Foreshadowing: Dick doing it with Jessie while Tommy is upstairs serves as a good indicator that he's not as sympathetic as he seems.
- From the Mouths of Babes: Lenny's young son - "You're trying to score with my mom, aren't you?"
- The Ghost: Claire for most of the film. She appears in one scene towards the end.
- Glory Days: Dick still watches the videos of his old interviews from when he was a beloved chat show host.
- Happy Marriage Charade: Implied with Dick and Claire. Possibly with Tommy and Jessie too, given how quick she is to cheat on him.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dick and his lawyer Neil are clearly very good friends.
- Informed Ability: Justified. Dick was a beloved chat show host, but the clips Lenny watches show him acting rather mean towards his guests. It's then revealed his career tanked because of his Jerkass behaviour.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: How else would Lenny find clips of Dick's meltdown?
- The Lost Lenore: Subverted. Lenny's husband died but she fell out of love with him before he became terminal.
- Manchild: Dick appears to be one.
- Man Hug: Dick's quite fond of these. He gives them to Tommy, Mickey and Neil.
- Maybe Ever After: Lenny suggests that her anger at Dick's kiss attempt was unwarranted and says they could try being friends, and see where they go from there. It's left open if they will hit it off. Tommy and Jessie are this too, since we don't know if they split up or not.
- Meaningful Name: Dick is admittedly a bit of a dick.
- Punny Name: Dick's lawyer is credited as 'Neil Something' in the credits.
- Second Love: Dick seems like he's attempting this with Lenny. But she calls him out on supposedly developing feelings for her after only three days.
- Slice of Life: The movie takes place over the course of one week, and has a man struggling to cope with a sudden divorce.
- Small Name, Big Ego: This was the case with Dick, who has admittedly calmed down since his career tanked.
- Tomboyish Name: The very female caterer is named Lenny. And it's not short for anything.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Slowly this gets revealed about Dick as the movie goes on. The entire story comes across as a big Break the Haughty moment for him.
- Vision Quest: Dick decides that the week will be this for him.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Rare male example. Dick used to be a famous chat show host, but a very public meltdown has him reduced to doing radio.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Dick wonders what parents would want to name their daughter Lenny.
- Wise Beyond Her Years: Male example. Lenny's son picks up immediately that Dick is trying to score with his mother.
