...a small, low-key drama that's agreeable enough and ultimately elevated by the uniformly superb performances.
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10/16/07
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Married Life (2008)
57
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:113
Fresh:64
Rotten:49
Average Rating:6/10
Consensus: Married Life has excellent performances and flashes of dark wit, but it suffers from tonal shifts and uneven pacing.
Theatrical Release:Mar 7, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $1,197,472
Synopsis: This melodramatic musing on the trials and tribulations of marriage features a small but talented ensemble cast that includes Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper, and Rachel McAdams. Set in 1949, the... [More]
Starring: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams
Director: Ira Sachs
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Reviews for Married Life
It swings from Far From Heaven-alike lush melodrama to Double Indemnity-like noir to something approaching black comedy, and the transitions never quite work. Accomplished then, but no classic.
06/27/08
A noirish 1940s-set character study, it’s an initially intriguing tale of infidelity and betrayal that smoulders, but never quite catches fire.
08/01/08
The tangled web which slowly causes the film’s relationships to disintegrate is brilliantly woven. However, you can’t help wishing the climax packs a bit more of a dramatic punch.
08/01/08
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10/18/08
There is a lightness and whimsy from the animated opening credits to the bright and explicit glamour of its 1949 world. While the narrative doesn't exactly wink at the camera, it certainly doesn't wallow in what could have been very dark material.
03/14/08
Sachs and Moverman have scripted a potboiler, but unwisely kept the lid on. Their intent is wry philosophical detachment; the effect is a biting social satire gone soggy.
03/15/08
A macabre comedy of manners with the sting of dry ice, this 2007 ensemble piece captures the social climate of America in the late 40s.
03/14/08
[T]here is something off with the pacing. The big Hitchcockian suspense sequence toward the end feels like something from the middle of a movie; you expect one more twist, but none develops.
03/13/08
All in all, this was a fun little, old fashioned pot boiler.
06/18/08
Stuck somewhere between a dark comedy and a thriller, director Ira Sachs' Married Life doesn't really work as either, leaving its strong cast adrift.
03/07/08
In many ways, Married Life is a Coen Brothers knock-off without a bit of the boys' accomplishment or bravado.
03/28/08
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10/18/08
Married Life reveals that playing pretend is not a game for children alone, but rather an artifice that finds its fullest expression in adulthood.
03/28/08
Maybe it is about compromise, after all, because though Married Life has its moments, it's bewildering as a whole.
03/07/08
Top CriticMarried Life gives new meaning to the phrase, "'til death do us part."
03/30/08
There's gentile satire here, to go along with suspense and sexual intrigue, but the tone of the piece stays too melodramatic to hit its potential to resonate. Every actor pours on his or her best, in a tempered showcase movie that's worth seeing.
03/08/08
The story is original, the characters complex.
03/20/08
Richard's version is exceptionally insidious, which makes Married Life at once fascinating and unsurprising.
03/21/08
A playful riff on film noir that starts by upending every '40s movie cliché.
03/07/08
Latest News for Married Life
September 04, 2008:
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. 
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March 06, 2008:
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.
More...
February 09, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
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