Harry's Existential Crisis & Katie's Divorce Plan
from Burn After Reading
Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
While lying in bed on a yacht, Harry attempts to wax philosophical about his personal growth and mortality, only to be blindsided when his mistress, Katie, abruptly announces she is divorcing her husband. Harry awkwardly tries to mirror her commitment while subtly backpedaling regarding his own wife, revealing the shallow and self-serving nature of their affair.
HARRY: ... and then, you know, you grow up. I guess that’s what’s happened with me. You just... people change. We married when I was, what, in my mid-twenties. A kid. We were kids. Twenties. You think it’s forever. Then, you know, you’re older——you begin to feel your mortality, you start to think, w
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