Married Life

Posted on: 6th August 2008  |

Director: Ira Sachs
Starring: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams
UK Release date: 1 August 2008
Certificate: PG (90 mins)

Married Life sets itself up as a quaint little period piece with a stylish animated credit intro showing the chintzy, domestic bliss of prosperous post-war America.  What's most remarkable about this is that it isn't some sort of twee counterpoint to a subsequent tale of debauchery like, say, TV's Desperate Housewives and its use of faux-fairytale narration to be smug about its black comedy.  No, Married Life goes to dark places but remains refreshingly understated about it, and with this sincerity it bestows upon the characters a fidelity to the era, although not to each other.

Set in 1949, the story centres on Harry, a buttoned-up business man in his fifties who's determined to leave his wife for Kay, a beautiful young blonde, but who's also desperate not to hurt Pat, his loving and devoted wife.  Meanwhile, when Harry introduces Kay to Richard, his lifelong friend, bachelor and master bounder, Richard decides he must have Kay for himself.

This film has a fantastic cast.  Chris Cooper is a great character actor, reinventing himself in every film.  Utterly convincing as the staid Harry, who could imagine that the homicidal homosexual Colonel Fitts in American Beauty, the heroic unioniser in little-known masterpiece Matewan, and the toothless orchid poacher in Adaptation were all played by this same man?  Pierce Brosnan handles the cad Richard with skill, giving him pathos in spite of his dubious behaviour and salacious attitude.  Patricia Clarkson, another low-key but accomplished actor (The Untouchables, The Green Mile, The Station Agent, etc.) plays wife Pat as confident and liberated without ever seeming at odds with its late '40s setting.  And Rachel McAdams has less to do here than the others but is graceful and humbly serves as foil to Harry and Richard's affections.

The characters themselves are written well and use their stereotype beginnings to give Married Life its playful tone.  When the respectable, responsible Harry decides to leave his wife for the starlet-like Kay, he isn't shown as a love-struck, old fool in a mid-life crisis.  He actually has a reasonable motivation.  Kay may be all red lipstick and bottle-blonde hair but despite the sexy promise of her appearance, she's actually a kind-hearted war widow with genuine feelings for Harry and certainly not the femme fatale she appears to be.  Even the promiscuity that defines Richard soon falters as he comes to fall in love with Kay.  And Pat remains a devoted wife despite the revelation that she's having an affair.

Married Life is hard to categorize.  It's certainly not the type of film seen very much in the cinemas today.  It could be called a comedy of manners but it's not scornful enough and holds its characters in too high esteem. Perhaps the key to the film's earnest tone is the fact it was adapted from a novel from that time.  Five Roundabouts to Heaven by John Bingham was published in 1953 and must automatically supply the movie with its authentic style.  And as a pulp mystery, the novel must also be responsible for the tension-building movie clichés that are so readily employed here without irony, like a broken telephone or being stopped by the cops while speeding home.  Married Life also wanders into film noir territory with passionate desires being achieved by sinister, immoral methods, but the lightness of touch and gentle comedy never succombs to the foreboding and menace that comes with that genre.

Perhaps the best way to figure out this movie is to follow its example and concentrate on the basics.  Married Life has a small cast, is character-driven and entirely content to tell its story without the burden of subtext.  As for any insight or embedded philosophy on marriage, it has none.  On the peripheries, it asks what a marriage should be after the children have grown up and have their own brood, but it certainly doesn't try to answer it.



Peter Quinn



 Visit this film's official web site



 

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