Married Life

Based on the 1953 novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" by John Bigham, "Married Life" - co-written by Oren Moverman and Ira Sachs, and directed by Sachs - is a throwback to all those florid film noir melodramas in which a bored husband (Chris Cooper) plots to do away with his wife (Patricia Clarkson) so he can start a life with his mistress, a leggy, blonde widow (Rachel McAdams) whose husband died in the war. Pierce Brosnan plays Cooper's best friend, a womanizing bachelor who, naturally, falls in love with the mistress, and who provides the overly-sincere, laughably self-conscious narration for the tale.

Though this kind of thing's been done much better in other films ("Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "How to Murder Your Wife" spring immediately to mind), solid performances from an A-list cast, rich period detail (the movie is set in 1949), and an interesting subtext about marriage meaning different things to different people ultimately make it palatable.

In 1949, the middle-aged executive Harry (Chris Cooper) and his wife Pat Allen (Patricia Clarkson) are the example of a happily married couple. One day, Harry invites his best friend, the bachelor Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan), to have lunch with him and Harry tells him that he is in love with the widow Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams). However, he is afraid to ask the divorce to Pat that would have her heart broken. When Kay joins them for having lunch, Richard feels attracted by the sexy woman. Sooner Richard accidentally discovers that Pat has a love affair with an acquaintance, but he does not disclose the situation to Harry or Pat, otherwise he would not have any chance with Kay. Richard dates Kay in many occasions as a friend trying to convince her that Harry would never leave his wife. Meanwhile Harry blends Pat's antiacid with poison expecting to kill her and spare his wife from the humiliation of a divorce. But when Kay breaks with Harry, he realizes that he has just lost his mistress, his best friend and probably his wife.

"Married Life" is a cynical film about the hypocrite relationships among the husband, his wife, his younger mistress and his best friend with a disappointing ending. Narrated by the best friend, the melodramatic story could be shorter and have a better conclusion with black-humor instead of the conventional one. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Vida de Casado" ("Married Life")

The DVD package says this is "a sly & smart comedy", but I have to warn you, that's not exactly what you get. To me, a sly & smart comedy would be "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" or "Deathtrap" or even "Fargo". While this movie has the same bizarre, criminal elements and intelligent dialogue as the above, I never sensed any outright comedy.

Still, it's well done & definitely worth a watch. Rather than a comedy, I would describe it more as a "drama of errors". The subject of murder is actually handled quite seriously although its casual nature might come across as odd (hence the humour?). There are no real laughs, but the strangeness of the story might elicit a few snorts, chortles, and possibly even a harrumph. But no guffaws.

The acting is excellent, the script is good, the style & direction is smooth & suave, like the 1940s setting it depicts. Some might consider it slow, but I'd say that's a plus because it gives us time to digest the complex themes that are presented such as the incompatible definitions of 'love', the value of loyalty in marriage as well as friendship, and of course the morality of murder.

Overall I liked this film. It's just the dag blasted ending that left me feeling cheated. I won't talk about it except to say that you should watch the alternate endings included on the DVD instead. In particular, Alternate #1 is closer to the book, and it gives us the thematic closure that the theatrical version omits. Alternate ending #1 also has a great piece of acting by Pierce Brosnan which, if it were in the actual movie, would've definitely made me bump up my rating by 1 or 2 stars.

"Married Life" is definitely worth the $2 rental fee. It deviates from the book on several key elements (such as the ending) and as a result doesn't quite wrap things up convincingly. But as far as movies go, it's entertaining, engaging and showcases some great acting talents.

Great cast, a very good recreation of "the times" (1940s) in almost every way (hey, I was "there").

Costumes/cars authentic and I loved watching all of the "smoking" (e.g. in nice restaurants, etc.) scenes.Though I'm a non-smoker and HATED those who puffed while I dined, for some reason those scenes made me a bit nostalgic (probably because I did not have to actually breathe-in that poison).

When the movie ended I wanted more however (and it is tantalizing/frustrating to read in another Thread that there is a much longer version of this film that was deemed not the right fit for current theatrical release).

Enjoyable and fun film. Cooper/Clarkson perfect (as always) and I feel Pierce is very underrated as someone who is way more than a "pretty face".

I think director/co-writer Ira Sachs' subtle 2007 homage to the old-fashioned studio melodramas of the 1940s and 50s could have used more of the Baroque feverishness of a Douglas Sirk ("All That Heaven Allows") to make the adultery-driven plot more intriguing stylistically - perhaps a face slap here, a gun confrontation there, even a shouting match in a restaurant. Instead, Sachs, along with co-writer Oren Moverman ("The Messenger"), downplays the overripe theatrics in favor of a more Hitchcockian approach to their noirish fable about the transient rules of love and deception. The resulting film is fun to watch due to its faithful period depiction but sometimes little more than a moral exercise in punishing the subversive thoughts and actions of the seemingly staid protagonist.

It's 1949, and the plot centers on Harry, a middle-aged and very married Manhattan executive, who finds himself in love with the much younger Kay, a WWII widow who enjoys the attention of a man so devoted to her. Harry decides he cannot divorce his wife Pat for fear of breaking her heart. In fact, he thinks it's more charitable to murder her by poisoning her digestive powder which she takes religiously every day. Harry's best friend Richard is aware of Harry's intentions and gets caught in the middle trying to save the marriage while finding himself becoming attracted to Kay as well. Not quite the victim she would seem to be, Pat has secrets of her own, which leads to a roundelay of events befitting the increasingly uneasy blend of treachery and absolution. Sachs capably keeps things afloat even when the suspense factor appears overly muted.

A smart quartet of actors has been cast beginning with Chris Cooper ("Adaptation") effectively embodying the crushed soul that Harry has become. Providing the voice-over narration from his character's limited perspective, Pierce Brosnan ("The Matador") uses his naturally erudite manner to great wry effect as Richard, while Patricia Clarkson ("Whatever Works") gives added dimensions of knowingness and cunning to Pat. With her hair dyed an unflattering peroxide blonde, Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook") looks poised to play the femme fatale, but her character is more ingenuous than she looks. That basically means McAdams has little bandwidth to add any complex shading to Kay. The 2008 DVD offers an informative commentary from Sachs, the theatrical trailer, and three alternate endings, each flash-forwarding the story sixteen years later to O. Henry-type resolutions. While interesting, none really add that much to the ending used in the movie.