Nora Goes Off Script

“My superpower is methodically placing a man and woman in the same shiny town, populated by unusually happy people with maddeningly small problems. They bristle at first and then fall in love. It’s all smiles until one of them leaves, but then comes back immediately after the commercial break. Every. Single. Time.”

This is the first moment where Nora describes her work for The Romance Channel. She explains how she recycles the same basic plot for her movies, using a familiar structure, then tweaking small details. With this description, Nora’s narration sets up the theme of the artificiality of romance storylines and explains Nora’s skepticism of romance in general.

“The tea house plays prominently in the breakup of our marriage, which is what earned it the title role. Ben resented the time I spent out there; he resented the work I did. He resented the fact that I’d been paying our bills for the past ten years. Which made two of us, actually. The more competent I became at taking care of our family, the more he despised me. The more he despised me, the harder I worked to make things right. Me writing in the tea house was a mirror he didn’t want to look into.”

The tea house represents a number of differences between Ben and Nora, such as their values and work ethic. Ben resents the tea house and his wife because they are reminders of his failure to support himself and his family. Nora clings to the tea house because it is the focal point of her work routine and sense of control.

“If someone leaves you, it’s because they didn’t want to be with you. All you lost was someone who didn’t want to be there anyway.”

This is Nora’s explanation to the actress playing her about why Nora’s character is not more emotional in the scripts. The question reflects Hollywood’s portrayal of the end of romantic relationships always as a loss, especially when a woman loses a man, rather than an opportunity for independence and growth.