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.
Comment
06/27/08
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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
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
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
All in all, this was a fun little, old fashioned pot boiler.
06/18/08
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
Married 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
A playful riff on film noir that starts by upending every '40s movie cliché.
03/07/08
The movie is a goof on Hitchcock and Sirk -- a period (late forties) soap opera with nasty sexual undertones and the omnipresent threat of murder.
03/03/08
Top CriticNever says much about the marital institution that is fresh.
04/06/08
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.
03/27/08
Top CriticThis contemplative examination of marriage, social mores, and personal ethics doesn't hold together, but individual pieces are absorbing enough to make up for the many uninspired moments, resulting in a mediocre, passable work.
02/11/08
... with its superb cast, its literate screenplay ... and noteworthy direction, [Married Life] is that long overdue adult film we've been waiting for.
03/27/08
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
08/27/09
If you can slow yourself down to the stately pace of 1950 (a whiskey sour or two might help), you might enjoy the offbeat Married Life.
03/21/08
[The] four principal actors are such worthy vehicles for sustaining the throbbing pace and shifting moods of this chamber piece that it's difficult to single anyone out.
03/06/08
Top CriticSachs avoids the casual misogyny that other filmmakers have brought to similar material.
03/06/08
A genre-bender that has elements of Douglas Sirk, Oscar Wilde, Alfred Hitchcock and Joseph Kesselring.
01/21/08
Married Life has enough plot twists and moments of high tension to keep the viewer engaged, but the main points of interest are the characters.
03/18/08
Top CriticLatest 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:
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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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