Running head: WHY DID I GET MARRIED?

(2007) GROUP FILM ANALYSIS

Why did I get Married? (2007) Group Film Analysis

Sarah Schwegler, Cesar Gonzalez, Joseph Ladner, Chwala Williams
Lone Star College Montgomery

In the film, Why Did I Get Married?, four married couples that are considered to be
best best friends go on vacation for a reunion. During the vacation, a divorce between one couple
unfolds, and causes everyone to question their own marriage. After the vacation, each couple
ends up dealing with different issues that causes their marriage to be put on the line. Eventually,

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the couples realize how important their marriage is and learn to stay committed through these
tough times. Overall, this film puts the audience into the perspectives of married couples and
how tough they can be sometimes. This film also explores how powerful the importance of
commitment can truly be.
In the film Why did I get Married?, there are four couples who are so close in
friendship they would consider themselves family. This would be considered an example of
family of affinity, meaning people who think of themselves as a family and wish others to see
them that way (Macionis, 2009, p.462). Throughout the film we see the women go to each
other like sisters would in times of crisis, heartache, celebration and love. Theyre there for
eachother no matter what, and their four way phone calls make it easy to stay in each other's
business. The men are very close as well, sharing their deepest darkest secrets with each other
when they need to vent to someone other than their wife. In the film we see their secrets come
out and cause a rift in their family, but just like a family by blood, they get through the hard
times, set their life right and continue to be their for the affinity family members.
During the film, Why did I get Married?, we see the couples go through some troubled
times with their spouses, almost to the point of divorce. We see them try and work through their
differences and come up with mutual conclusions, but unfortunately not all of the couples have a
happy outcome. Divorce is no longer viewed as such a bad thing, and in most cases if the
divorce is mutual, then it's nothing more than a break up. So many people go into marriage
viewing it as a possible life long contract, because they know divorce is their out. In the film
one of the couple's marriages ends up in divorce due to infidelity. Throughout the film we see
Sheila trying to save her marriage with Mike, who has been cheating on her for months with her
friend, unbenounced to her. Up until Sheila finds out Mike is cheating on her, she believes they

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can turn their marriage around, apparently he didnt want to. Cheating is the leading cause to
end marriages and the biggest temptation in a marriage.
In the film, Why Did I Get Married?, there are examples of endogamous and
exogamous marriages within the group of main characters. Endogamous marriages are unions
of people within the same social category, while exogamous marriages are unions of spouses
from different social categories (Openstax College, 2013, p. 203). An example of an
endogamous marriage would be most of the married couples in the film due to them all being
college friends. An example of an exogamous marriage would be Sheila and Troys marriage
towards the end of the film, who focus on their love rather than their standings on social
elements.
In the movie, Sheilas experiences with her faith and marriage could fall under Marxs
theory that religion is an opiate to the masses. While Marx was speaking to the power
dynamic within capitalism, it can also be used to explain power dynamics within marriage and
the role religion might play. After her divorce with Mike, Sheila becomes very depressed and is
in shock of what happened between them. Although these tragic events have occurred, Sheila
maintains her faith and continues to trust god and eventually finds a new husband.
Author Andrew Cherlin defines the concept, marriage-go-round, as a cycle that many
Americans find themselves in after first getting married, then divorced, and then quickly married
again. (Conley & Cherlin, 2010.) In the United States, marriage is still highly valued. People
have a desire to be with someone and marriage can be an official, formal way to communicate to
your partner and to others that you are in a committed, long-term relationship. Many people in
such relationships do not get married; however, being married does have benefits socially, as
well as from state and federal institutions, largely in the form of tax incentives and estate

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transfers. Contrastingly, though many Americans seemingly desire to share their lives with
another person in marriage, statistics show that many of those same persons will go on to
become divorced. The cause of many of these divorces will likely be rooted in the American
value of individualism, which places great focus on independence and self-reliance. So, although
many people get married, they tend to only value that relationship until it no longer benefits them
as an individual. We see this conflict of marriage and individualism illustrated quite well in the
film, in nearly every relationship displayed. Seemingly, every married couples relationship is
strained because one or both persons are too concerned with fulfilling their own desires. Both
--Mike and Marcus have stepped outside of their marriages to fulfill their sexual desires. Dianes
life is consumed with the duties of being a partner at a law firm. In each of these examples,
viewers can see how the other partner may be neglected and written off, such as with Mikes
wife, Sheila. Or, in Dianes case, she only sees a problem after her husband Terry, who had been
trying to get her to spend time with him for much of the film, to no avail, moves out.

John J. Macionis defines faith as a belief based on conviction rather than on scientific
evidence (Macionis, 2009, p. 489). Dalton Conleys concept of supernatural compensators is
defined as Promises of future rewards, such as salvation or eternity in heaven. (Conley, 2011,
p. 614). The two aforementioned terms are both well-illustrated by the character Sheila, with
specific regard to her decision to stay with Mike. She believes that God can restore her marriage
and make it better than before, (example of a future reward,) but, she must first climb the
mountain of obstacles and difficulties that present themselves on her way to the marriage
retreat. Although, for whatever reason, she could not see that Mike was blatantly having an affair

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with Trina. Ultimately, we see her go through embarrassment and personal strife, even anger at
God because she felt as though she had done what she was supposed to have done and came up
empty-handed, until she formed a relationship with Sheriff Troy and subsequently marries him.
She goes on to say that her and Mikes marriage was not founded on the best things, and that
God led her to someone who was better than Mike, implying that God had someone better for
her in mind from before she first married; which is an example of her faith, as defined
previously.
A transitional family, is a family structure that consists of a man, women, and one or
more of their biological or adopted children. In most transitional families, the man and woman
are husband and wife. In the movie Why Did I Get Married? the married couple that best fits
this descriptions is Terry and Diane, they are a married couple that consists one biological child
together, living in the same household. Although they were the definition of a transitional family,
they still had their share of ups and downs, like most families in society. They had to lean on the
support of their good, long terms friends. In the beginning of movie Why Did I Get Married?
you can see the four couple find themselves struggling to save their marriages on their annual
marriage retreat, while seeing each of them go through financial, physical, mental, and emotional
issues. Yet, they are a strong and powerful proximity likening for each other, which is what helps
them overcome their obstacles. Propinquity is nearness in space, time or relations, and in this
movie, you can clearly see the closeness and relationships that the four couple have.

The film Why Did I Get Married? helps illustrate many concepts of sociology.
Endogamy and exogamy. The marriage-go-round. Faith and supernatural compensators.
Although, its greatest strength may be its ability to illustrate the conflict of individualism where

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it meets marriage, in America. Each couple brings a unique aspect of that conflict into

perspective for the viewers. One would imagine that most traditional families and the like might
find themselves able to relate to one of the families onscreen. One could also infer that it was the
hopes of the movies creators that in doing so, it might help those with similar conflicts to want
to resolve their differences.

References
Dalton Conley & Andrew Cherlin (2010). Andrew Cherlin and Dalton Conley discuss the
"Marriage-go-round". Retrieved from Youtube Web site:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cHFlrkDh9Q
Conley, D. (2011). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (2nd
Ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Macionis, J. J. (2009). Society: The basics (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom
Publishing.
Perry, T. & Cannon, R. (Producers) & Perry, T. (Director). (2007). Why did I get married
[Motion picture]. The United States of America: Lionsgate.

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