Chapter 2 of 23 · 2'56"
Over a meal, one friend admits he has become involved with a woman he met at a dinner party. It began casually, but now it is 'getting out of hand,' and he cannot stop thinking about her. The other is stunned, because he always believed this man's marriage was one of the best he knew.
It's Getting Out of Hand
❝ Monologue · 4 lines You Shouldn't Ask Me for Advice
Two friends are talking over a meal when one of them confesses an affair. He met a journalist at a dinner party weeks earlier, started with lunches, and now the relationship is out of hand. The friend asks for details and is shocked, saying he thought this man had one of the best marriages he knew.
The confession is funny because it is so organized. The man has clearly rehearsed the timeline — a dinner party, lunches, a few weeks — and he uses the language of a problem rather than a romance, as if the affair were something that happened to him. "It's getting out of hand," he says, and then admits he cannot stop thinking about her. His friend refuses the role of judge: "you shouldn't ask me for advice," he says, offering instead a self-mocking line about winning the August Strindberg Award for relationships. The comedy lets the film raise the stakes without a lecture. What both men avoid saying is that the marriage is already damaged; the friend keeps insisting it was one of the best, as if repeating it could make it true.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“And now it's, you know, it's getting out of hand and I don't know what to do about it.”
Get out of hand captures the loss of control, and the second clause admits total helplessness.
Informal
“When it comes to relationships, I'm the winner of the August Strindberg Award.”
He turns romantic failure into an award, and the self-mockery lands harder than any complaint.
Informal
“I always thought for sure that you and Emily had one of the best marriages.”
A plain confession of surprise shows how much faith he had in a marriage now breaking.
Neutral
“It's terrible. Listen, you shouldn't ask me for advice.”
Self-disqualification deflects the question and hides the guilt in a joke.
Informal
But in all the years that we've been married I've had, what... one or two very minor things with other women. I mean, very... I hate the whole idea. I hate myself when I'm doing this sort of thing. But this is just, you know... This is not like that.
Up next · 03get carried awayThe scene: Isaac Sends Tracy HomeHe needs someone to talk to and seems to want both sympathy and advice. The friend is shocked, because he believed this man had one of the best marriages he knew.
He says his own record with relationships is a disaster, joking that he has won the August Strindberg Award. He does not want to pretend to be the wise one.
He insists he loves his wife, says he has only had one or two minor things with other women before, and claims this time is different — which is exactly what alarms his friend.
She is a journalist he met at a dinner party about seven or eight weeks earlier. What started as casual lunches has become serious, and he says she is on his mind all the time.
Because he thought the marriage was one of the best he knew. The confession forces him to see that even the marriages he admired can be falling apart.
