The War of the Roses (1989)

Plot: As a cautionary tale, Washington DC based divorce lawyer Gavin D'Amato tells a potential new client the story of the Roses, Oliver and Barbara. The Roses fell in love at first sight when they were both poor college students - he on scholarship at Harvard Law, and she on a gymnastics scholarship at Madison - meeting by chance at an auction when they were both bidding on the same art piece. Through the early part of their marriage, they both seemed to be striving for the same thing, prestige and the image of perfection, they coming at it from two different directions. Oliver, the breadwinner, did everything he could to impress his bosses to make partner so as to make more and more money, while Barbara spent that money creating what they both considered the perfect showcase home, the house itself which she stumbled upon and bought relatively inexpensively on a white lie. In having that different focus, Barbara, after ostensibly making the house that perfect home and becoming empty nesters with their two children going off to college, realizes that she has lost any sense of herself, which she largely blames on Oliver, who in turn is oblivious to her unhappiness in his sole goal of that outward perfection and prestige, oblivious that is until she asks for a divorce. As the symbol of that prestige and perfection, both are unwilling to give up the house in the divorce settlement. Out of circumstance, both are living in the house during the divorce proceedings, with both their children, when home, and their housekeeper Susan being pawns and potential collateral damage in each doing whatever to get the other to leave and give up the house in the settlement.