Married Life

2007 "Do you know what really goes on in the mind of the person with whom you sleep?"
6.2| 1h30m| PG-13| en
Details

A very gentle middle-aged man is married, but when he falls in love with another woman, he decides that to divorce his wife would humiliate her too much – so instead he decides to kill her.

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Reviews

Micitype Pretty Good
Pluskylang Great Film overall
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
blahblahblah12345 The lead cast was fantastic. Chris Cooper, whom I'm not very familiar with, was perfect, Patricia Clarkson as always, masters her supporting role, Rachel McAdams also shines in perhaps her strongest role to date. Pierce Brosnan may be forever plagued as James Bond, but he fit into this film very well and I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the strong performances, after seeing this film, I knew many people wouldn't have loved it as much as I did because many of the things I appreciated about the film isn't the type of stuff that would get a typical movie goer excited. Mainly, I adore irony and dark humor, which many people do not. Many people didn't find this film to be even a dark comedy and found it boring, but if you pick up on it this film is truly brilliant. I would recommend watching this film with an open mind and be prepared to think a little bit.
luhlin The film is interesting from the point of view that it is not an obviously violent entertainment. There is of course, a plot to murder, an apparent attempt to do so, however, blood and guts with loud noises are definitely not present - does this mean that American movie making is shifting to a kinder, gentler form of entertainment? I suspect that because the film is placed in the late forties, early fifties and the characters are three quarters well into their fifties that nary a person under forty will want to view this film, unless there is some other allure. Another point of interest, and perhaps the real allure, is an obvious over-abundance of smokers of the chain-smoking and casual sort. Okay, that went with the times, but doesn't it also suggest that this could be a tobacco company's dream come true? A legitimate vehicle to peddle a product generally considered verboten to the world. Wow! Now there's an investment opportunity - finance a film that promotes an unhealthy product by using well-known and popular film personalities cast in a nostalgic flick with just a slight irony at the end. So, we trade off the usual brutality with the subtle message that smoking - while it will also kill can nevertheless be a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
TxMike Mostly set in 1949 and 1950, when most men still wore hats outside.Chris Cooper is Harry Allen, a well-to-do business man with a nice office and a secretary that does things for him. Yes, that is the way it was back then. Patricia Clarkson is his wife Pat Allen, and she has a somewhat peculiar definition of love, to her it means great sex, and often. She doesn't quite understand how her husband wants emotional closeness. Pierce Brosnan is Harry's friend since they were boys, Richard Langley, and they seem to tell each other everything. At least Harry tells Richard. This leads to much of the complications in the story.The biggest and prettiest complication is Rachel McAdams as young war widow Kay Nesbitt. The story involves romance not necessarily in one's own bedroom, and the complications that ensue when reality catches up with the deceptions. Good, interesting movie. All first-rate actors.SPOILERS: Harry loves Pat, but he has really become smitten with younger and prettier Kay, who appears to love him equally. Harry knows he has to be with Kay, but he also worries that it will make Pat unhappy the rest of her live, so he does the only logical (to him) thing, he plots to murder Pat. Meanwhile Pat has developed a sexual relationship with another man, but she knows that Harry "needs" her so she has no interest in leaving Harry. But Richard, a perpetually single playboy sees Kay as a worthwhile target and sets about luring her away from Harry's affections and into his. He eventually succeeds, and fortunately Harry's attempt to poison Pat fails, so Pat and Harry and Kay and Richard learn to embrace what life has given them and make the most of it.
gradyharp MARRIED LIFE will probably fare better in the DVD format where this at times disturbing view of marital status can be viewed in private rather than in the company of the throngs that resemble the characters depicted in this fine little film. Based on the novel 'Five Roundabouts to Heaven' by John Bingham and well adapted to the screen by Oren Moverman and director Ira Sachs, MARRIED LIFE is a dissection of the hallowed state of matrimony, and one that shows the creases and little holes that make so many marriages fail. it is set in the late 1940s, likely with the attempt to give some 'distance' to the plot, but the messages remain in comparing the tale to contemporary times.Narrated by perennial playboy bachelor Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan), we are introduced to Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) who apparently has it all - big house, great job, sex-driven wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson), country home - but Harry has fallen in love with military widow Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams). Harry respects and still 'loves' Pat, but finds in Kay the love he has felt missing from his marriage. He confides his desire to leave Pat to Richard who is surprised - until Richard meets the beautiful Kay. Not wanting to hurt Pat, Harry decides the only solution is to murder Pat so that he can then marry Kay: he researches poisons and buys a potion that he plans to place in Pat's ever-present 'digestive medicine' bottle. Harry and Kay continue their secret assignations in both Kay's home and Harry's nearby country home, but things begin to muddle as Richard falls for Kay, and Kay's attention shifts to Richard, and the devoted Pat is hiding her secret lover Tom (David Richmond-Peck). As the twists and turns surface, everything unwinds and the ending of the story comes as a surprise to everyone! The quartet of actors - Clarkson, Cooper, Brosnan, and McAdams - serve the story well and the flavor of the 1940s starts with superb opening credit images and carries through with the fine decors and attention to detail that don't seem to miss a beat in recreating the period. This is a difficult film to classify - it has comedy inherent in the absurdity of portions of the plot, it has drama in the core of the tale, and it has mystery as the surprises keep surfacing. The overall effect will be different for every viewer, depending on where in the marriage spectrum each viewer stands! Grady Harp