Steven Spielberg has suggested that The Fabelmans, his latest film, is a $40 million therapy project. The Fabelmans focuses on divorce and in doing so holds a mirror to the director’s own parents’ split.
In its unblinking depiction of what has for so many become a rite of passage – almost one in two marriages end in divorce — the film makes for uncomfortable viewing. Spielberg refuses to indulge those parents who depict marital breakdown as just another milestone in a child’s life. He portrays it as a tragedy that casts a long shadow.
‘Everything in his career is marked by his parents’ divorce,’ one critic concluded. This is true of many of us who have experienced divorce. I was 13 when my parents divorced. Their lawyers marvelled at how civilised the break-up was, yet it has marked my life ever since.
We can follow Spielberg’s example and speak honestly about family breakdown
As a teenager, I needed more friends, and more from friendships, in order to counter the insecurity fostered by the crumbling of 13 years of certainties: that my parents loved each other, that they would always be together, that we were a happy family.
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