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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Far too many period productions look right, but feel wrong. Set in 1949, Married Life doesn't just bring the post-war era to vivid life with cigarettes and cocktails aplenty; it even plays like a product of the time. In that respect, it calls to mind AMC's Mad Men, except Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue) takes a lighter tone towards domestic disharmony. In this well-scrubbed suburban world, middle-class wives, like Pat (Patricia Clarkson), build their lives around their husbands. Pat and Harry (Chris Cooper) seem happy, but Harry confesses to his pal, Richard (narrator Pierce Brosnan), that the spark is gone. He plans to leave Pat for vibrant young war widow Kay (Rachel McAdams in a role that recalls The Notebook). Once Richard, a notorious ladies man, gets a gander at the platinum blonde, he secretly sets out to win her affections, while Harry plots to take Pat out of the picture. Married Life almost simulates one of Alfred Hitchcock’s pessimistic disquisitions on matrimony, yet Harry and Richard seek less hurtful means to achieve their goals. Though women's lib has yet to hit the suburbs, Pat and Kay harbor desires of their own, and the best-laid plans soon go awry. Though Kay could use further development, this ensemble hums along almost as harmoniously as the quartet in Starting Out in the Evening. Along with co-writer Oren Moverman (I'm Not There), Sachs transforms John Bingham’s 1953 novel, Five Roundabouts to Heaven, into an insightful treatise on love, marriage, and fidelity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
A strong blend of suspense, star-crossed romance and wry comedy of manners, Married Life is an unconventional human drama about the irresistible power and utter madness of love. Harry (Chris Cooper) decides he must kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry and his much younger girlfriend Kay (Rachel McAdams) are head over heels in love but his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) wants to win Kay for himself. As Harry implements his awkward plan for murdering his wife, the other characters are occupied with their own deceptions. Like Harry, they are overwhelmed by their passions, but still struggle to avoid hurting others. Married Life is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations. While it plays with mystery and intrigue, its ultimate concern is: What is Married Life? In its sly way, Married Life poses perceptive questions about the seasonal discontents and unforeseen joys of of all long-term relationships.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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, September 08
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, September 08
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
A Pierce Brosnan narrated period piece about love, marriage and in the end - friendship. I will preface this with a disclaimer - the high rating and bit about friendship is for the alternate versions of this film.
The quality of the transfer looked very good, and I think when they make heavy make-up films like this the standards have to be higher now. Making it look flawless on such beauties as McAdams and an aged Brosnan and Cooper (alternates) can be tough, but they pulled it off decently. The clarity was so good at times there were a few reflections of cameras, lights and boom mics in glasses, eyes, etc. The story was made to be very believable for the time period, but I have to give the kudos to Cooper for once again playing a great role.
But what makes this film is the alternate endings. DRASTICALLY different then what you saw in theaters and on the home release. The special features on the Blu are the same as on the DVD, so buying this Blu would be recommended for the period piece memorabilia clarity alone. Plus, the other endings showed as 1080 even though it says 480 on the box (and most alternate inclusions are lodef on Blu so that was nice). I wish there was a way to bookmark the film and splice in the much better ending(s). Rex Reed keeps getting quoted as saying this is humorous and funny but I would say expect more of a "simmering" slowly played film that has some fun scenes and maybe one or two themes of darkness, but is believably enjoyable. The alternate endings total about 20 more minutes and are worth the time investment.
The quality of the transfer looked very good, and I think when they make heavy make-up films like this the standards have to be higher now. Making it look flawless on such beauties as McAdams and an aged Brosnan and Cooper (alternates) can be tough, but they pulled it off decently. The clarity was so good at times there were a few reflections of cameras, lights and boom mics in glasses, eyes, etc. The story was made to be very believable for the time period, but I have to give the kudos to Cooper for once again playing a great role.
But what makes this film is the alternate endings. DRASTICALLY different then what you saw in theaters and on the home release. The special features on the Blu are the same as on the DVD, so buying this Blu would be recommended for the period piece memorabilia clarity alone. Plus, the other endings showed as 1080 even though it says 480 on the box (and most alternate inclusions are lodef on Blu so that was nice). I wish there was a way to bookmark the film and splice in the much better ending(s). Rex Reed keeps getting quoted as saying this is humorous and funny but I would say expect more of a "simmering" slowly played film that has some fun scenes and maybe one or two themes of darkness, but is believably enjoyable. The alternate endings total about 20 more minutes and are worth the time investment.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By L. A. Vitale
Format:DVD
Other than being super slow in parts and occasionally predictable, I truly enjoyed this movie as it was a different take on married life in the 1940s. There is mystery, intrigue, deception and infidelity, not to mention that there are a lot of different stereotypes that one normally associates with certain genders that are broken throughout the movie.
Great acting by all cast member... I enjoyed the storyline, costuming and cinematography.
Great acting by all cast member... I enjoyed the storyline, costuming and cinematography.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Marital Cheating with a twist
Pierce Brosnan is one of my favorite actors. In this mix of husband, wife and lovers
you have to keep an open mind, as well as try not to root for anyone in this romantic... Read more
you have to keep an open mind, as well as try not to root for anyone in this romantic... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mary B. Coleman
3.0 out of 5 stars
great! i was very pleased!
i was really happy to get what i asked for(; everything came great and was at a great cost! !
Published 3 months ago by alexis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Do not build your happiness upon another person's unhappiness
I am overall satisfied with the movie as I didn't have any high expectations to be met by it when I had randomly picked it in the romantic movie section of my dvd collection on a... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert Ozan
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad but not entirely satisfying either
Seeing the list of actors in this film it should be a recipe for success, however, while the first half, for me, was quite slow, and the whole film felt a little disjointed and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by myz
5.0 out of 5 stars
married life vs poisoner of alfred hitchcock
i was watching an alfred hithcock movie a couple of days ago that resembles "married life" it is almost identical but in the AH movie; when the aldulterer husband is heading home... Read more
Published 18 months ago by josefina fonseca
1.0 out of 5 stars
waste of a great cast
After about 15 minutes I couldn't take the ice age pace of this glacial movie. What a colossal waste of a great cast (although for the life of me Rachel MacAdams could be Elizabeth... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Brian Maitland
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fine performances spice up under-cooked film noir melodrama
Based on the 1953 novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" by John Bigham, "Married Life" - co-written by Oren Moverman and Ira Sachs, and directed by Sachs - is a throwback to all those... Read more
Published on January 14, 2011 by Roland E. Zwick
3.0 out of 5 stars
Acts of Deception in a Muted, Twisty Homage to Post-WWII Domestic...
I think director/co-writer Ira Sachs' subtle 2007 homage to the old-fashioned studio melodramas of the 1940s and 50s could have used more of the Baroque feverishness of a Douglas... Read more
Published on December 29, 2009 by Ed Uyeshima
3.0 out of 5 stars
But What about those endings??
"Married Life"is an interesting film, beautifully directed and performed, perhaps a little too larconic at times and with a middle section that lags and sags a bit. Read more
Published on October 9, 2009 by Les G. Solomon
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quiet look on married life
Married life is a mystery, not only in late 40s, time when the events of this movie take place, but rather since beginning of time. Read more
Published on May 7, 2009 by Reader
