Subtitled "The Declining Rate of Marriage in North America," writer-director Sara Martins's Never the Bride asks why are more women today over the age of 30 unmarried? Martins offers several explanations for this trend, interviewing her own family, as well as members of the clergy, a lawyer, and a diverse range of women. Martin tells her own story of why she postponed marriage until her mid-30s. As a first generation Canadian with strong Portuguese roots, she struggled between her traditional Catholic upbringing and strong family pressures toward marriage on the one hand, and her desire to first become educated, grow, and explore a career on the other. Martins listens to women describe the satisfaction of being single, their hopes for eventually having partners, the difficulties of meeting someone, and the pitfalls of social media. More and more, both men and women want to postpone marriage, while being single and living alone has become something of a status symbol. Both the clergy and lawyers state that the marriage rate is declining as people instead choose to cohabitate (which also coincides with a more general decline in interest in organized religion). In the end, Martins does get married, but suggests that people should celebrate their individual situations and not conform to marriage if they don't believe in it. Offering an interesting exploration of contemporary attitudes toward matrimony, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Root)
Never the Bride
(2016) 59 min. DVD: $24.99 ($199 w/PPR). Dreamscape Media. Closed captioned. Volume 33, Issue 2
Never the Bride
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