Cousins

Cousins

Year: 1989

Runtime: 109 mins

Language: English

Director: Joel Schumacher

ComedyRomance

Love at first sight. Consequences to follow. Two couples go to a mutual friend’s wedding and end up swapping partners.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Cousins (1989)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Cousins (1989). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Wedding venue, family home

The story unfolds around a wedding that doubles as a large family gathering. The venue functions as a pressure cooker where long-simmering tensions come to light. The setting feels intimate and domestic, grounded in a close-knit family dynamic during a festive occasion.

🏠 Family setting 💒 Wedding atmosphere

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:52

Main Characters – Cousins (1989)

Meet the key characters of Cousins (1989), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Larry Kozinski (Ted Danson)

Larry is a successful yet restless husband whose affair with Maria exposes fragile loyalties. He oscillates between charm and selfish impulses, revealing a longing for connection that his marriage cannot fully satisfy. His choices drive the plot and force him to confront what he truly wants from love and family.

💬 Affair 🧭 Moral conflict 👨 Family responsibilities

Maria Hardy (Isabella Rossellini)

Maria is intelligent and independent, torn between her loyalty to her daughter and the thrill of a dangerous romance. She seeks emotional honesty and ultimately wrestles with whether love can coexist with commitment. Her decisions catalyze the film's emotional arc.

❤️ Romance 💔 Betrayal 👩 Family

Tish Kozinski (Sean Young)

Tish is Larry's wife, who navigates the shock of discovering her husband's infidelity while maintaining dignity. She demonstrates resilience and a sense of boundary-setting, choosing what she believes is best for her own well-being and family stability.

💍 Marriage 🧭 Boundary-setting 💪 Resilience

Tom Hardy (William Petersen)

Tom is a car salesman whose own affairs fuel the tension between couples. He is self-serving and volatile, yet his actions push others to confront uncomfortable truths about commitment and fidelity.

💼 Infidelity 😡 Jealousy 🧩 Complications

Edie Hardy Kozinski (Norma Aleandro)

Edie is Maria's widowed mother and Phil's partner-in-law; she embodies a blend of warmth and survival pragmatism. She acts as a stabilizing figure in the family and watches the drama unfold with a shopper's practical calm.

👵 Family matriarch 💬 Wisdom 💖 Loyalty

Phil Kozinski (George Coe)

Phil is the charismatic uncle whose sudden death acts as a catalyst for the family drama. His memory lingers over the gathering, influencing how characters behave and how grievances surface during the wake.

💥 Catalyst 🕯️ Remembrance 👨 Family

Vincent Kozinski (Lloyd Bridges)

Vince is Phil's brother and a father figure whose presence exposes the hidden loyalties within the family. He offers support, attraction, and a voice of pragmatic sense amid the chaos, shaping the wedding's emotional trajectory.

👔 Family 🗣️ Advice 💞 Romance

Chloe Hardy (Katharine Isabelle)

Chloe is Maria's daughter who becomes a lens into the consequences of adult decisions. Her actions at school reveal the unintended ripple effects of the adults' relationships on the younger generation.

👧 Child 🧠 Insight 🪞 Reflection

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:52

Major Themes – Cousins (1989)

Explore the central themes of Cousins (1989), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

💔 Infidelity

The film centers on the emotional fallout of an extramarital affair between Larry and Maria. Their secret meetings threaten the stability of two marriages and strain bonds with children and parents. The narrative probes guilt, temptation, and the consequences of choosing passion over commitment. The tension escalates as suspicions rise and the couples confront rumors, loyalty, and heartbreak.

👪 Family dynamics

A sprawling family gathering exposes competing desires, loyalties, and hierarchies. Generational gaps color perspectives on love, duty, and happiness. The wedding becomes a stage where characters reveal hidden resentments and negotiate new alliances. The film uses humor and drama to explore how family love can coexist with flawed choices.

🌊 Love & new beginnings

Ultimately Larry and Maria choose to pursue a life together, signaling forgiveness and the possibility of second chances. The narrative concludes with them sailing away with their children, embracing a future built from honesty and hope. The ending reframes marriage as a flexible bond shaped by trust, growth, and shared dreams. The epilogue offers a forward-looking vision of family happiness beyond conventional expectations.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:52

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Bittersweet romantic reconfigurations like in Cousins

Stories where finding true love means painfully dismantling existing lives.Movies like Cousins that center on characters who find profound, life-altering love outside their existing commitments. These stories capture the tense, bittersweet reality of partner swapping and second chances, blending hopeful endings with the melancholy of broken ties. If you liked the romantic but complicated journey in Cousins, you'll find similar emotional depth here.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative follows characters trapped in unsatisfying relationships who encounter a powerful, forbidden attraction. The central conflict is moral and emotional, pitting duty and guilt against the pursuit of genuine happiness. The journey involves a painful transition, often impacting a wider circle of family and friends, but culminates in a hopeful resolution for the new couple.

Why These Movies?

These movies are grouped by their shared focus on the bittersweet nature of transformative love. They balance the high-stakes drama of infidelity with a steady, character-driven pace, ensuring the emotional weight feels earned. The tone consistently mixes melancholic tension with hopeful passion.

Steady-paced marital dramas like Cousins

Character-driven explorations of marriage under pressure, explored without rush.If you liked the realistic portrayal of marital strife and family dysfunction in Cousins, this collection features similar movies. These dramas use a steady pace to explore the emotional fallout of infidelity and forbidden love, focusing on character depth over fast-paced plot twists. Find more movies that thoughtfully examine relationships under pressure.

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Narrative Summary

Stories in this thread typically unfold in a realistic domestic setting, focusing on the gradual erosion or transformation of a primary relationship. The plot is driven by internal conflict and dialogue, rather than external action. The pacing allows for quiet reflection, deepening the audience's understanding of each character's perspective and the consequences of their choices.

Why These Movies?

They are united by a specific vibe: a serious but not overwhelming look at adult relationships, delivered with a steady, deliberate rhythm. This combination of medium emotional weight, steady pacing, and a focus on marital issues creates a cohesive viewing experience for those interested in mature, character-centric stories.

Unlock the Full Story of Cousins

Don't stop at just watching — explore Cousins in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what Cousins is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.

Cousins Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Cousins, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.

Cousins Summary

Cousins Timeline

Track the full timeline of Cousins with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.

Cousins Timeline

Cousins Spoiler-Free Summary

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Cousins Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Cousins

Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Cousins: box office results, cast and crew info, production details, post-credit scenes, and external links — all in one place for movie fans and researchers.

More About Cousins

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