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MARRIED LIFE
Married Life
 Outwardly happy marriage is threatened for Harry and Pat when Harry falls for Kay. Murder seems the best solution, then family friend Richard also falls for Kay. score

2+		 moviereview rates films from
1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, David Wenham

 Director
Ira Sachs

 Screenwriter
ira Sachs
Oren Moverman

 Country
USA / Canada

Rating / Running Time
M / 92 minutes

Australian Release
July 2008

Official Site
(c) moviereview 2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361l
 “I always thought marriage was a type of illness, like chicken pox,” says Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan). His narration establishes what could be a macabre comedy, yet may be a portent of dramatic misfortune and in truth is a little of both. Sachs reaches through to a socially turbulent 1940’s to poke around the floral prints and beige flannel of domestic propriety: it’s a little Douglas Sirk and a lot Todd Haynes, though far less successful than either.

Tone is the sticking point as the writer/director presents Harry and Pat Allen (Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson), an outwardly contended couple. Pat loves Harry, but Harry loves the much younger Kay (Rachel McAdams). Rather than see his wife suffer, he decides to kill her. So far so desperately black. Then family friend Richard blots the copybook when he falls for Kay and makes his move while Pat is making moves of her own.

At the core of this duplicitous business lies gallows humour that doesn’t save what should be an enjoyably buttoned-down story of lies, adultery, sex and murder. Instead it falters on a line between black comedy and romantic melodrama. While each character seems capable of anything, it’s that unknowing that evaporates our concern. Any certainty about their response to any one of several back stabbings is undone by uncertainty. For they could, and often do, do anything.

This variability makes the plight of Sachs’ characters like something overheard on a train, curious yet largely devoid of personal involvement. Despite solid performances and appealing design, Married Life prefers to shuffle the deck than play its hand. A rather exasperating affair, this is a film that begs you to care but offers less reasons to do so than it does reasons not to.

// COLIN FRASER