accounting firm) she has paid for them to undergo a week of intense marriage counseling with Dr. Bernie Feld (Steve Carell) in a coastal resort town in Maine. Arnold, a creature of plodding, unimaginative routine, denies their marriage is in trouble and resists getting on a plane for a week of marriage therapy. The real challenge comes in sessions with Dr. Feld as they both try to articulate their feelings, revitalize their relationship, and find the spark that caused them to fall in love in the first place. In daily sessions in his office, Dr. Feld counsels them together, each time asking increasingly frank questions about their sex life and feelings toward one another. Arnold is angry and defensive, rigidly resistant to change, and unwilling to see the depth of his wife's disappointment. Discouraged by Arnold's recalcitrance, angry and crying, Kay goes alone to a bar where she vents to the bartendress and learns nobody else is having any sex. Arnold visits a nautical museum. Back together, they spend the night in the same bed for the first time in years, and Kay awakes in the morning to find Arnold's arm around her. At this sign of progress, Dr. Feld urges new measures. They make halting attempts at intimacy on the bed of their budget motel and again in a movie theater, but this time with disastrous results. Arnold finally takes the initiative to arrange a romantic dinner and a night at a luxury inn, where they attempt to make love in front of a fireplace, but the grand design fails. At their final session, Dr. Feld tells them they've made much progress and should take up couples therapy back home. Back in Omaha, old habits resume. Kay offers to pet sit for a fellow employee and packs a bag to stay there, as a first step in a permanent break with Arnold. With Kay already in her bedroom, Arnold ascends the stairs to bed and pauses at her door, but does not knock. Both are shown in bed trying to sleep. It is Arnold who arises, puts on his bathrobe, and enters his wife's bedroom. Kay sits up as he sits down beside her and they tenderly embrace. The lovemaking that follows is warm, natural, and quietly passionate. The next morning it's clear that the marriage is in a whole new place after all. Later that year, as Kay said she fantasized, they renew their wedding vows on a beach with Dr. Feld present, making promises to be more understanding and considerate of each other.

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