“Fleishman is in trouble”: Now you know how that feels

They have the sharp tongue of those who loved each other very much. Of those who know the folds, the horrors of others and their own shame in such a way that they know which button to press to blow up their whole life. Fleishman is in trouble (Disney+) serves the viewer a sweet detonation that seems to develop into a meek divorce until one night she –Rachel (Claire Danes)— sneaks into his apartment —Toby (Jesse Eisenberg)— and, the day before the appointed time, tucks the children in to go to the yoga retreat without looking back. Marimorena ends the arrangement when, seven days later, she does not show up for them.

From the premise where is momif something happened to him or if he deliberately decided to “abandon” his children (he would see) part of this adaptation novel of the same name by Taffy Brodesser-Akner which rediscovers the classic He went to buy tobacco and never came back and take the opportunity to devote yourself to the sun on the miseries of those who fall from the cherry tree when they turn 40. So aging was this: responsibilities, dissatisfaction and suffocating nostalgia, still with money in your pocket.

there we have Toby: a guy struggling to keep his high morals intact, a textbook nerd in his acne days who once divorced succeeds like Coca-Cola in the liberated world of dating apps, a functional adult surrounded by people he hates that when he takes off his ring, he picks up the cable and reconnects with his two best friends from university to get closer to who he was then than they were. This is fantastic Libby (Lizzy Caplan)who is bored as hell being a full-time wife and mother, in the midst of an identity crisis, and Seth (Adam Brody)whom we also knew as Seth u OC), the cliché of a handsome face and an office shark allergic to obligation. And then parts begin to move, focus shifts and roles change. Welcome, my friend, to parenting 24/7, not for a short while, to lend a hand to the lady.

Now you will know how it feels, people of the world. You’ll know it when you see that Toby with the shotgun, the face like the day is still hours away. You’ll find out by watching his clumsy attempts to deal with a spoiled pre-teen and her younger brother, a privileged eight-year-old smartass who barely understands anything about life. And you’ll know it when you realize in front of him that asking for favors and days for your own business eventually takes its toll, when you feel the pieces before you even see the crack.

the voice inside turned off — not too creaky, to be fair — places the viewer in a disorganized narrative, inclined to look back to fit the pieces and, only then, to understand. The emotions behind what is happening are more important than what is happeningmore the reasons of the characters than the unknown, which in the end gets diluted when everything else is understood: why this couple dialectically torments each other, why do we miss the shot when we see (himself) Toby as abandoned, why do we swallow that he was a comedy and it turned out to be a tragedy , why those frames upside down.

Because we are all in it—in trouble—.