Brad and Kate

The movie Four Christmases, which I do not recommend and have not seen, does have a scene which I read about which so shows this. In the movie, the characters, Brad and Kate, are a cohabiting couple without children. The gist of the movie is that they decide to visit their family members after years of neglect, and through those “Christmases” discover the importance of marital commitment. Early in the movie, there is a scene in which Brad and Kate have just finished a class in which they are learning how to dance. They are just doing it as a hobby, but many of the others in the class are engaged and are taking the class so that they can dance at their wedding. They assume Brad and Kate are doing the same, but obviously they are wrong.

As the scene opens, the dance class has come to an end, and all of the couples are changing their shoes. The engaged woman turns to Brad and Kate and asks, "So, when's the big day? We're getting married in the spring in South Carolina. What about you guys?"

"Oh—we're not getting married," Kate quickly replies.

Another man attending the class chimes in, having overheard the conversation: "So, why are you taking dance classes?"

"We do a lot of stuff together," Brad replies. "This is just one of many things we do together."

"Yeah," Kate says. "It's fun."

"I can't think of anything we don't do together," Brad adds.

"Right," the engaged woman says. "So, why wouldn't you want to get married?"

Kate shrugs and says, "We're happy."

"We're happy," Brad says, repeating Kate's statement for emphasis. "And I love her, so—." He pauses for a moment, struggling to find the words. He continues: "Marriage just brings pressure and stress and all kinds of stuff."

"We don't want our relationship to turn into work," Kate says. "We want to be together because we enjoy it, not because we have to."

"There's a reason they use the expressions 'tying the knot' or 'ball and chain,'" Brad says.

"Have you listened to the words of a marriage ceremony?" Kate says. "'I promise to obey' and 'till death do us part'?"

"I'd rather be stuck on an island with some weird millionaire hunting me, trying to kill me, and me trying to escape, than be involved with those slogans," Brad says. "That's like a time bomb waiting to explode!"

At this point another woman attending the class pops in, saying in a foreign accent, "What about children? You want to make them, no?"

"No!" Brad and Kate shout, almost in unison.

"I don't want to make them," Brad says. "I don't just want to, like, be responsible for this kid and hurt their feelings and disappoint them."

"That's what happened to our families," Kate says.

"We're both from divorced families," Brad says. "We've seen it. We don't need to repeat the pattern. But, anyway, congratulations on getting married. That sounds like a really cool thing. And to each their own."

"Yeah. Absolutely!" Kate says.