I was nervous about seeing this movie. The last time I saw a Rob Reiner directed version of a movie written by Alan Zweibel, I was forced to sit through the entire movie known as North. I couldn't walk out either, because it was a screening at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. North was completely awful. Even more chilling was that Bruce Willis, one of the stars of North, stars in The Story of Us.

My fears were groundless. The Story of Us turned out to be a sweet, romantic comedy that tells the story of how a couple's marriage is falling apart after 15 years of married life, and the steps they take to deal with the reality that things may really, finally, be over and the "us" that was their lives together may no longer exist.

Willis and co-star Michelle Pfeiffer are well-matched as the couple who clearly love one another, while having trouble with the person each has grown to become since they first united as a couple. The other roles are well-cast, Reiner casting himself and Paul Reiser as the close friends of Willis's Ben Jordan, while Rita Wilson is excellent as the best friend of Pfeiffer's Katie Jordan. Tim Matheson does a nice turn as Marty, the guy who puts the moves on Katie after she and Ben have separated.

They waited until their two kids were off at summer camp to reach this point. The only two people who don't know that Ben and Katie have split are the kids. The adults have decided the kids aren't ready to be told the truth and thanks to summer camp, they don't have to know until the summer is over.

If you sense echoes of Harry Met Sally in this film, you aren't alone. Many make the same comparison and there is some truth to this. Both explore the roles of men and women in the dating and mating process. Both use common social settings as locales for funny joke-driven dialogue. The jokes are amusing and that's a good thing, otherwise people would have left long before the good stuff.

That's after the two have actually separated. It is in this phase of the movie that Zweibel's script explores the complexities of life after what one perceives as the end of a relationship that has defined one's adult life. Admittedly there are moments when the story drags, and when a sequence goes on one joke too long. But overall there is much to admire here and while the formulaic ending is neither surprising or ground-breaking, it does bring a tear to the eye of most viewers.