Harry’s the quintessential “nice guy,” good at what he does, is pleasant to everyone and never has a hair out of place. A hopeless romantic, Harry finds his marriage to Pat (Patricia Clarkson) unfulfilling, lacking the hearts and flowers he always dreamed would be part of his greatest love affair. While most men would love a woman who prefers sex to intimacy, for Harry, sex with little intimacy leaves him cold.
Unlike Harry, Richard is a perpetual bachelor and hopeless rogue. Perhaps that’s why Harry feels comfortable sharing his secret with him. However, it does seem naïve for him to introduce the platinum blonde widow Kaye (a gorgeous Rachel McAdams) to such a friend. One figures she fell for Harry, a man almost thirty years her senior, because of her need for a male authority figure after the deaths of her father and her soldier husband. However, one look at her, and its clear Richard won’t be able to stay away from her.
Based on John Bingham’s 1953 novel, Five Roundabouts to Heaven, the film takes on the feel of a noir film of the 1940’s when Harry decides to hatch a plan to kill his wife. He’s not doing it out of anger though; he simply wants to spare his wife the pain of a divorce. Since Harry isn’t accustomed to planning murders, it takes time for him to decide that poisoning his wife might be the best way to get the job done. Unbeknownst to Harry, during this time, Harry has been warming things up with Kay and Pat has had her own excitement that nobody knows about, creating a whole separate layer of deception around the proceedings.
All of these deceptions happen behind a façade of propriety, meaning at times, Married Life feels a bit slow. Yet, it’s an approach that seems right for the characters. While Harry seems to want to kill his wife, there’s not a brutal intensity to it. Instead, the plan is slow and methodical. The only character in the film with any real physicality is John O’Brien (David Wenham), another corner in the eventual love pentagon, a hulking, sweating guy who Richard tells us is the only one among them to actually have “fought the Huns.” John looks like he’s ready to break down the walls that separate him from what he wants. It’s also significant that he is an unpublished author. Perhaps he is able to write because he’s capable of imagining.
The acting in Married Life is superb. I continue to be stunned at Chris Cooper’s versatility as an actor. He has an innate ability to literally become some else. As Harry Allen, Cooper plays, a repressed droll figure who expresses a lot of his emotions through his face and body movements. Once again, as he has for years, Cooper shows a tremendous ability to reflect every characteristic of a character. No one would deny that playing James Bond is a career maker. Unfortunately, the role also tends to pigeon-hole the actor into suave, uptight roles. Pierce Brosnan’s turn as Richard Langley shows he is doing a good job at reinventing himself as an actor.
Married Life is about passion, love and friendship. Though the film begins with Harry’s secret, we soon discover that Harry isn’t the only one who can surprise us. However, for a film with so much passion, the restraint is unbelievable. Whatever the faults, the delightful acting and unexpected wrinkles in the story make Married Life worth a look.
The BD is presented in 1.85:1 1080p AVC. The sets and clothing are late 1940’s. The colors are vibrant and deep. I noticed only a bit of cloudiness in some of the indoor scenes, but nothing that should affect the viewing experience. The audio is a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. Married Life is dialogue driven and there are no special effects or explosions. The dialogue is crisp and clear.
The special features on Married Life are limited. There is an audio commentary with Director Ira Sachs and three alternate endings with optional commentary. The audio commentary is fairly typical, with Sachs explaining his motivations for shooting a scene, how he set it up etc.
