The Roy Story List

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• Five Things That Never Happened to Roy by dossier

MOVIE REVIEWS

I saw this movie for the first time a few weeks ago, having read a few negative comments on his character.  I thought his explanation of why he was not ready for marriage was a good one and that she was way too needy and pushy.  An -I want it now kind of person.  He cared about her but was truthful and open with her.  So in the end she got what she wanted but she invaded, manipulated and pushed to get her parents to do what she wanted for her self satisfaction.  The fact that it worked in the end does not necessarily mean that the end justifies the means.

Nick was good in this role (as always). I felt sorry for him but figured he would be better off in the long run without her.
Karen-Leigh

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What can I say positive about "Their Second Chance"? Outside of NL, *nothing*. This is exactly the type of dreck that I loathe. I didn't like the girl at all; in fact, I thought she was a scheming little slut who was a Monica-wannabe. Or something along those lines. Now Roy, on the other hand, seemed like the lone voice of reason, but was she going to listen? Nope, no f'n way. Poor little Miss "I want my real mommy and daddy"... As for Roy--he was honest with her about wanting to take it slow. He'd already been in one failed relationship and wanted to *build* a new one. Now since I'm sure most of us have been in a similar position through the years, we can probably appreciate his attitude. Roy was far better off without her, because I honestly belive she would be (with Roy, at least) an abuser. Bear with me for a moment, now. NL has always enjoyed playing off-beat roles, and what would be more off-beat than for him to play a man who was abused by a woman? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm basing this on their middle-of-the-night fight. Remember when he is in the kitchen? As they argue, she ends it by punching him in the stomach. Not slapping his face or trying to hit him in the upper torso or even storming out of the room, but hitting him in the stomach. Fairly hard too, judging by his reaction. Now once again, I'm sure we've all been in our share of arguments with men, whether on dates or relationship/marriage. I'd wager that most of us, when we get mad, would *probably* attempt a slap or other attack on the face. It's almost traditional. Very few of us would use a bodyblow. So to me, this indicates that she has *a lot* of potential to be an abuser and Roy was far better off without her. (Although I was rather looking forward to NL having a scene with CO that was pre-XF).
mary d

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I did wonder why she decided to wait until Roy was tired and ready to go to sleep to launch into her 'marriage' onslaught. Very manipulative behaviour on her part. He was quite literally trapped, and rather than give her a smooth lie he let his feelings show. He was confused, confronted and up front with her. Her sweet response was to belt the shit out of him in a manner that could have caused him real physical harm, then as he's gasping for breath she won't listen to him and throws him out of their mutual apartment in the middle of the night. The funny part was that he left. The amazing part was he did not belt her back before he went. After all of that, Roy gets labeled as the creep.

In our world, 'here', we would have had Krycek ease through the door to communicate to Miss Congeniality about how distressing he found her treatment of his identical twin (G).
Bonita

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Actually that was HER apartment--they did not live together  which I think proves he was not ready for the commitment she wanted.
PattiX

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Uck, can't she just see CSM instead? She would have made CSM look good. (And the movie was an all around negative portrayal of adoption in my professional opinion. It was painful to watch after Roy left.)
Ursula

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Well, since it was her place, Roy probably felt that a motel would be far less hassle. I felt that she was in a hurry to get married and start a family--she clearly had major issues with her adoption that were unresolved. (Actually that subject alone would be good for a separate discussion; ditto the foster issue with Anson, and of course, Cory and the orphanages. But I digress.) I think she was so caught up with the idea of her real parents getting married that it made her push the issue even harder. It is greatly to Roy's credit that he did not fight back. You can imagine what would have happened then--she probably would have had him jailed for assault & battery, etc. I'm just surprised she didn't go running to her bio-brother and have him do a background check on Roy or something. Maybe she did anyway. We all know what usually happens with NL characters and the law now, don't we? I mean, he's 6'1, 180 lbs. and he's claiming that she started it and he just defended himself? Yeah, the cops are so going to believe that. Well, maybe if she'd clawed his face... And also if I remember right, hadn't they just decided to try living together and within the week? month? she's got the wedding planned, and poor Roy is the sacrificial lamb.
mary d

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This may be too much like an essay and not enough like the discussion (which is going along nicely!), but it's the point of departure that came to me, so...  Okay, once I got over the shame and trauma of  "Oh, jeez, I am fucking watching *Lifetime*!!" (what we do for this guy...), my impressions were pretty much as follow. 

From Roy's POV, I think the movie should have been called "His Narrow Escape".  His fiancee is shown early on to be a whiny, utterly self-centred bitch who disses him to her co-workers and seems to look on him as merely a necessary accessory.  This is the woman with whom the audience is supposed to identify, mind you -- the one who can continue a warp-6 stream of prattle about the workday while in bed with the playful, half-dishevelled Roy trying to get her undressed...  Ah.  Right.  Moving on.

Roy, however, despite looking like your typical yuppie, is unfailingly affectionate, supportive and rather laid-back.  He's somewhat dubious but tries to be upbeat about her search for her birth parents, and for much of the movie he lets her appalling behaviour toward him slide.  It's only after she's made repeated trips across the country (they're in San Diego, the family is in New England) to snipe, bully, guilt, steamroller and manipulate her birth parents and other family members not only into accepting her, but into reuniting after 30 years simply so she can have the fairytale ending she craves, that Roy tries to put on the brakes.  Cajoling, then exasperated, he makes several efforts to reason with her about what is becoming a really creepy obsession; even then, she tears into him about it but he sticks with her.

It's only in the course of their final blow-up that we get any kind of sense of who Roy really is, as opposed to the jerk she paints him to be or the alternately detached and totally whipped guy his previous restraint has made him seem.  Earlier that night as they're sitting in bed, his fiancee is involved in a phone call with her birth mother, pretty much acting as if he isn't there and even dragging the handset cord across him while he's trying to read.  He finally falls asleep, while she sits up planning -- you can almost see the manic little wheels spinning.  She pounces on him, dragging him out of a sound sleep, to insist that they get married, ASAP.  Shaken, Roy gets out of bed and retreats to the kitchen.  His expression and body language make it quite clear that he's both upset and angry at getting this ultimatum (especially in this fashion).  When she follows him, demanding an answer, he does try to calm her down, to no avail.  He tries to explain that he's still not over what was apparently his fairly recent bad divorce, that he does love her but isn't ready.  And it's plain to everyone except his fiancee that he is indeed wounded, all the more so now that his "anything for a quiet life" forebearance has fallen in.  When he tells her he just can't go ahead with their marriage yet, she gut-punches him and tells him to get out.

All right, there is a certain snerk factor to seeing NL, in a Tshirt, doubled over and gasping, where we'd least tend to expect it.  But in terms of the character, it really isn't surprising to see the disillusionment on Roy's face -- the realisation that the happy scenario *he'd* envisioned for their future was shot to hell -- or hard to believe that he subsequently dressed and left in the middle of the night, probably without another word.  That he didn't deck the bitch would have been astounding, in a less slanted movie.

Though the fiancee -- in yet another bit of "poor me" posturing -- tried to depict him as a shallow, selfish commitmentphobe who'd led her on, Roy struck me as a decent guy who displayed extraordinary patience until being dragged into the centre of her escalating obsessiveness and backed against the wall.  Because the movie revolves around the fiancee, we don't even find out any of his backstory until the last second.  The movie expects the viewer to accept/condone her POV and thus write Roy's protests off to using the divorce as an excuse.  But all of the bending-over-backward he'd done (now there's an image...), the arrangement they'd initially arrived at, and her singleminded behaviour overall, tends to cement my impression that if she'd backed off and shown him even the slightest consideration, things could have worked out differently.  It was, rather, the fact of her adoption that she seemed to be working overtime  -- as an excuse to be a neurotic brat demanding instant gratification, and thus doing considerable damage to the cause of adoptees in general.

No, Roy was fortunate to get out when he did, circumstances notwithstanding.  I'd like to hope the experience didn't embitter him too badly, because he was trying hard to make things work.  Guy deserves a nicer life.

[And, tangentially, I have to add that it was especially pleasant to see that her half-brother (named Jeff, played by Chris Owen -- sometimes you just sit back and let the absurdities come to you...) didn't play along, either, until more or less of a grudging truce at the  end.]
realitycek

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If not for Lifetime I'd never have gotten to see "The Commish" and Nick as the adorable Ricky Caruso (g)!  We all suffer for Nick.

This gorgeous man playfully chases her up the stairs as he's laughing and playing grab-ass so that they can have fun sex and she's doing her daily planner in her head the entire time. Duh.

He is very undemanding, isn't he? He never asks for anything from her, not even courtesy.

Ah, so I was not the only one who thought this woman was creepily obsessive/compulsive and Roy was astonishingly easy going about it. He demonstrated to me right there that his main goal at that time in his life was to live without strife. Yet he spent time with her, consoled her, demonstrated his care for her and she never reciprocated in the least. The man was willing to put up with a lot simply to avoid conflict, and we later learn why.

I wondered why in the world we were supposed to have any feeling at all for a woman who speaks so badly about the man she supposedly wants to marry. Where could that attitude go but downhill?

She was a fount of thoughtfulness towards him in every way, wasn't she (snort). He never complained. Plus, here's a guy who is READING, not channel surfing while relaxing in bed. Another little detail I liked.

He does his best to keep it together, but man, he was really rattled. He could have stayed and fought with her, but he retreated. Classic fear syndrome and she hunts him down, literally cornering him in the small kitchen.

I can't believe that they did not have this conversation before, yet she treats it like it's new to her. Either she had made no effort to get to know him or she had ignored what he had previously told her. They'd been together for a year, and she did not know he was so hurt by what had occurred to him in the prior relationship? That kind of dismissal of his needs fit in with her other behaviours, her driving need to roll over everyone to get her own way.

Nick was heartbreaking in his pain as he explained himself, the way he curled into himself as he tried to speak from his trapped position. Yet she kept coming at him, verbally then physically assaulting him.

She gave that punch all she had too. The man was in pain, cornered, afraid, confused and angry yet again, he did not lash out. And he's supposed to be the villain of the pair. Yeesh. He tries to apologize to her and she cuts him off, she gives him no room to maneuver at all. No compassion, no caring, nada.

I figured that his first stop after this event would either be a hospital or a bar. She thrashed and trashed him and them tossed him out like garbage.

His lack of reprisals was a strong indication to me that he was already a walking wound, and she had lacerated him further.As a female, I found her treatment of him to be demeaning and her further whining about 'poor little me' to be insufferable.

Chris Owens was fun, wasn't he? The only voice of honesty in the family.
Bonita

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Him leaving without hitting back makes him more of a man in my eyes.  He was either very smart knowing if he raised his hand to her, he'd be thrown in jail but if he called the police and said she hit him I'm sure they wouldn't have done anything seeing as how she wasn't bigger or stronger than him.  Or he was just raised with the knowledge that no matter what happens to you, men don't hit women.  I know that there are some women bigger and stronger than men and there are many domestic violence cases where the man was the abused spouse, but statistically the woman is  usually the abused.  And men that are abused by women that don't fight back are either actually frightened of the damage the woman can inflict....or they are frightened of the damage they themselves could inflict.  Lets say for instance, I walked up and punched my husband in the stomach.  Aside from the look of total shock on his face from me doing something so veeerrrry stupid (he's 6'1 260lbs and I'm 5'4), he might be a little winded and a little sore later....but....he probably (I can't say definitely, I've never been stupid enough or mad enough to throw a punch) would not strike back.  He realizes that because he is a man and I am a woman if he punched back he could break my jaw, crack a rib or put one very serious bruise on me that if I were pissed enough the police would lock him up quick.  Roy was more of a man to walk away than show he is a "big strong macho jerk" and hit a woman. 
DeAnna

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Bonita, thank you so much for that spirited defence of Roy! I agree completely with what you've said. And I never regarded Roy as the villain of the piece either, ever. (Did his girlfriend punch him in the gut? I thought it was a bit lower than that, in a place it hurt most.....)
Sophie

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