Dave Weigel is crazy to suggest that "the Homer/Marge stuff [in the Simpson's movie] was as touching as anything in your top-shelf romantic comedies." I liked the film too, but it was unrelenting depressing on these issues. It was a film during which the lead female character realized her husband was a senseless brute who would always put his happiness before her own, and where her son realized the father was an abusive drunk who was continually denying him the emotional support and family environment he needed. And unlike in most Simpson's episodes, both characters recognized these truths fully, and abandoned Homer to begin new lives elsewhere. And shortly thereafter, both took him back, tossing away their opportunities for personal growth and fulfillment despite there being no evidence of an enduring change in their tormentor's psyche. It was a tremendous demonstration of the self-destructive mentality of the abused, and in that, quite unsettling.
Which isn't to say the movie wasn't funny and great and joyous, as it was! But you really had to fight to ignore what was actually going on...
