Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
5/27/08
There are some movies which,
no matter how enjoyable they may or may not be to watch, clearly exist
primarily for the people who made them. Married Life, Ira
Sachs film version of John Bingham's 1949 book Five Roundabouts to Heaven
strikes me as such a movie: with its' lovingly recreated 1950's setting
and top-shelf cast smoothly and coolly wrapping their mouths around the
kind of dialog that's meant to be enjoyed like fine wine, it's the kind
of film the people who make movies would inevitably rather be making than
the kind people actually pay to see. Because of that great cast,
and that great dialog, it's never anything less than interesting.
But at the end of the day, Sachs' thoughtful meditation on... something...
is less than the sum of its' lovingly assembled parts.
Our narrator is Richard Langley
(Pierce Brosnan), long-time friend of humdrum businessman Harry Allen (Chris
Cooper) and his loving wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson). Harry asks Richard
to dinner to meet Kay (Rachel McAdams), a lovely young widow who's become
his improbable mistress. He explains to Richard that he's now in
love, in a way he's not with Pat, and plans to leave his wife for Kay.
Except... she could surely never endure the heartbreak of a divorce, and
Harry has a better idea. Rather than upset his wife, he will simply
murder her. Richard knows nothing about this plan, but he does know
one thing: he wants Kay for himself, and when he learns information
that could allow the Allens to end their marriage with their consciences
clear, he stays silent. Will his selfish sin of omission have fatal
consequences?
Married Life is an
actor's movie, and luckily it's got four fine stars in its' principle roles.
Cooper can do anything, but he has a special talent for humorless certainty
(see Breach). Harry's desperation for “true”
happiness turns him into a kind of morally upright sociopath, and Cooper's
matter-of-fact certainty that his wife must die for her own good seems
almost logical except that it's totally nuts. It's been almost three
years since we saw McAdams, who looked like a breakout star in Red Eye,
and she perfectly walks a perfect line: Kay can't possibly be as innocent
and trusting as she seems given the things she does. Clarkson is
also in her wheelhouse, so perfectly balancing weariness and affection.
But it's Brosnan who dominates the proceedings. His Richard is a
perfect self-deceiving manipulator, just taking what he wants when he wants
and giving us a perfectly rational explanation for why he did it in his
dry, casually sinister narration.
Whether it comes from the
script or the book, Married Life is chock full of artfully smoky
dialog, and the story does have a certain leisurely suspense. But
once it's gotten where it's going, I'm not entirely sure I understood exactly
why it went there. So too was I ultimately puzzled by the 50's setting:
sure, it lets the actors dress up in period garb, but I'm hard-pressed
to think of the last time a movie so nominally took place 50 years ago.
I probably wouldn't want
to see Married Life again, but once through it's a diverting little
quasi-thriller filled with quality performances. And I'm sure that
if you mention it to Sachs or any of his actors, you'll get a really big
smile. |
