Parents' Guide to WeCrashed

This drama's cautionary portrait of unchecked ego is pretty much what viewers expect, but what might take them by surprise is the cockeyed yet rather enviable romance at its center. The broad strokes of former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann's rise and fall are well-known to any news consumer, or, frankly, anyone familiar with big-business rise-and-fall tales: Risk-taker defies all odds to become fabulously successful, cuts corners, becomes steadily more corrupt, and is then brought down by a combination of their own hubris and the fury of those they betrayed along the way. And yet the finger-wagging headlines that chronicled Neumann's financial wins and losses concentrated almost exclusively on the now-ousted CEO's own misdeeds and eccentricities, without capturing one aspect of the story that WeCrashed brings front-and-center: WeWork wasn't built on the ambitions of Neumann alone; it was a folie à deux with his complicated wife, Rebekah.

In Anne Hathaway's hands, the woman behind (next to?) the man emerges as fully formed, kooky, exasperating, yet also the type of muse who spurs daredevils on to more and better. We first meet her as the Neumann fortunes are spiraling down and the couple marches hand-in-hand to a disastrous board meeting wearing matching huge sunglasses and imperious facial expressions. The story then spools back to show us how Adam and Rebekah met, she a fledgling yoga teacher from a rich family (she's Gwyneth Paltrow's cousin), he a brash hustler with more moxie than business sense. It doesn't take long before she buys into what Neumann's selling, and shortly thereafter, the pair start encouraging each other's most appalling excesses. "You're a supernova," Rebekah tells her husband, stroking his face as he cries in frustration; she hands over her father's wedding gift of a million dollars for a house to keep WeWork afloat. In choosing to zoom in on Rebekah and Adam's partnership, WeCrashed has received criticism for gliding over the real pain that the couple caused to real people. True, but still, WeCrashed may make viewers wish they had a twin-star partner of their own, and conclude that watching one may be the next best thing.