Opening

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Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
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Married Life (2008)

tomatometer

55

Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 116
Fresh: 64 | Rotten: 52

Married Life has excellent performances and flashes of dark wit, but it suffers from tonal shifts and uneven pacing.

59

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 34
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 14

Married Life has excellent performances and flashes of dark wit, but it suffers from tonal shifts and uneven pacing.

audience

36

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 4,845

My Rating

Movie Info

After entering into a passionate affair with a much younger woman, an unhappily married man resorts to murder as a means of eliminating his wife in director Ira Sachs' period melodrama. Set in the 1940s, Marriage tells the tale of Harry (Chris Cooper) -- a man whose wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), only wants sex. Smitten by the beautiful Kay (Rachel McAdams) but ultra-sensitive to his wife's feelings -- so sensitive that he can't stand the thought of breaking her heart -- Harry opts to poison his

PG-13,

Drama, Romance, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

John Bingham, Oren Moverman

Sep 2, 2008

$1.2M

Sony Classics - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (121) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (52) | DVD (7)

It looks beautiful, and the convoluted plotting is initially the right side of Hitchcock pastiche, but the central conundrum is teased out over so many twists and false climaxes that ultimately it's a shrug, not a shock, which greets the denouement.

July 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Sachs combines humor, suspense, and twists of plot that keep the ground shifting under our feet.

April 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It's as dry as the martinis these well-dressed stiffs keep ordering at that perfectly preserved oak, leather and velvet bar before hopping into their vintage convertibles.

April 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It oscillates between stale period piece and unengaging melodrama, coyly seducing viewers with the potential it fails to fulfill.

March 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Offers audiences movie pleasures, as well as emotionally authentic challenges.

March 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Denver Post
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Married Life is an engaging romance noir, a sort of updated The Postman Always Rings Twice that packs its surprises into four characters, none of them predictable.

March 27, 2008 Full Review Source: Washington Post
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The roundelay structure and Hitchcockian nods could have easily given way to a sardonic puppet theater, but Sachs and screenwriter Oren Moverman care too much about their characters to turn them into pawns

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

One of the more ethically dubious films to come out of Hollywood in years.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

This darkly comic dramatic thriller, which is set just after World War II, is more than merely watchable. It's very smart and is old-fashioned in several respects.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

It is as though filmmaker Ira Sachs fears that just making a film about infidelity is too straight, too pedestrian, so, he's got to introduce the possibility that murder is on the horizon.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders
Entertainment Insiders

Even movies that dare to paint dark portraits of the sacred institution can't resist glorifying it in the end.

September 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Pajiba

The ensemble cast chemistry is superb in its nearly suffocating tangle of repressed passions, but the family-values wrap-up of all these messy erotic tensions feels ultimately far too pat and unresolved.

September 4, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

The ensemble cast chemistry is superb in its nearly suffocating tangle of repressed passions, but the family-values wrap-up of all these messy erotic tensions feels ultimately far too pat and unresolved.

September 4, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

While you never feeling you're seeing something for the first time, what's done here is done well.

September 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Once he gets out from under his influences and trusts his own gut, Sachs might become a major director.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

Thought-provoking themes swirl around in this drama, brought to life by a skilled cast and a director who plays with Hitchcockian themes and imagery. In the end, it feels a bit undercooked, but the actors keep us glued to the screen.

August 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall
Shadows on the Wall

It's a good cast, with Cooper outstanding, but Sachs's direction is stodgy and the screenplay is grindingly self-conscious.

August 1, 2008 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

Audience Reviews for Married Life

Good, but expected it to be better. End just felt a bit flat to me. However, very nice to look at, and cast all good - kind of like of like one of the old film noir movies. Just would have liked a little more to it.
November 25, 2008
romy861

Super Reviewer

The characters are rich and the acting excellent, but nothing in this subdued little thriller really seems to stick. As a chamber drama or a little sociological portrait of infidelity of the upper-middle class, Married Life does the trick, but aren't there a million other movies like this? There's nothing fundamentally that sets this apart from the scores of other movies about barely-restrained marital dissatisfaction. I mean, why give this a second when Far From Heaven is sitting there, an infinitely richer and more original exploration of similar themes? I don't mean to discredit the successes of Married Life; as I sat through it, it disarmed me with its surprising compassion toward its characters and the mature interpretations from the performers channeling them. Perhaps the quality that DOES make this movie stand out is an attempt to place a desperately unlikable protagonist in front of us and ask us to forgive and understand him. The one problem here is that Chris Cooper is simply irredeemable, as hard as the movie tries. The attempts at drawing sympathy for his situation are admirable and ambitious, but they simply fall short - it is extremely difficult to vindicate such repulsive actions without seeming overly manipulative, and though Married Life nobly attempts a quieter justification, it isn't enough.

The only other surprise Married Life has up its sleeve is a fantastic performance by Rachel McAdams. We fully expect Chris Cooper to be great, so no surprise there. Pierce Brosnan offers nothing exceptional but operates well within type; Clarkson, as much as I love her, offers a studied but uncomplicated riff on her "housewife experienced in the art of suffering" routine. McAdams, though, is a fascinating actress; her highly limited filmography speaks well of an enigmatic allure, which she funnels elegantly into Kay Nesbitt. Kay is a deceptively deep woman, observant and compassionate but with a clear sense of what she wants for herself. She hesitates, but not because she is expected to, but out of legitimate concern for others. We learn something new about her in every scene we spend with her; McAdams does a commendable job unfurling different layers of this character as the film progresses, never giving us too little or too much. So great.

I really wish there was more to this movie, because I feel like it's perched on the brink of greatness but just needed a bit more thought. Another rewrite. Something to energize it more. Maybe a sharper visual eye - there's nothing interesting to look at here other than the opening titles. In its current form, it's doomed to be forgotten, if only to be rediscovered as an actorly curio and subsequently reminding its finders why it was forgotten in the first place.
November 5, 2010
ceWEBrity

Super Reviewer

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