THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Married Life"                                                                                                                                                                       

The Trouble With Harry's Logic: Imagine Me and You, and Sue . . . So Happy Together?

By Omar P.L. Moore/March 14, 2008

Patricia Clarkson as Pat, and Chris Cooper as Harry, in Ira Sachs' film "Married Life".  As Pat, Ms. Clarkson has her sexiest role to date on the big screen.  (Photo: Sony Pictures Classics)

Ira Sachs brings a staid 1940's Connecticut into focus with his direction of "Married Life", which opens in various cities of the San Francisco Bay Area today after debuting last week in New York and Los Angeles.  He cleverly crafts this deliciously entertaining film laced with satire, and presided over in both voiceover narration and onscreen presence by Pierce Brosnan, who as Richard delivers a smoky Philip Marlowe-type private-eye breathlessness that possesses both a charm and appeal that crackles throughout.  Mr. Brosnan's Richard is indeed the film's center of a tangled adulterous web.  Turns out that he is the single freelancer, enveloped in a pickle with Kay, a woman (played by Rachel McAdams) that his best friend Harry (Chris Cooper) is having an extramarital affair with, unbeknownst of course to Harry's wife Pat, played by Patricia Clarkson, in her sexiest role to date on the big screen.  So often, whether on screens big or small, or on stage, Ms. Clarkson plays the wise older friend whose shoulder is leant on, or an icy boss or bridesmaid to a man's would-be affections, but as Pat she smolders as a siren, sexier than she's ever been, and in a refreshingly adult way.

"Married Life" is less of a cliche than it is an illustration of the complexity of adults who yearn for escape, or merely freedom from marital circumstances that may in fact be too comfortable for them to bear.  That Mr. Sachs chose to set the film (based on John Bingham's book Five Roundabouts To Heaven) in the late 1940's perhaps represents a metaphorical straitjacket serving as a juxtaposition against which these flawed creatures escape from the conventions of what many societies say marital bliss is supposed to bring.  But the human heart is what it is, and what it yearns for, it will fight to have, and at any cost, and the director and his actors all demonstrate that here.  While the human heart's mysteries and unique twists and turns have occurred for centuries, what is new and refreshing about "Married Life" is that all of the participants have second and third thoughts about their actions, some of them cheating on themselves as much as on each other.

Mr. Sachs and Owen Moverman write the screenplay from Mr. Bingham's book, and a great many of the lines have an ironic meaning, giving the film a cheekiness that helps overshadow the more unsettling and grim undercurrents of the plot, which essentially revolves about Harry's plan to kill Pat in order to "relieve her of her suffering".  An ignoble deed and an arrogant and patronizing statement to be sure.  Many (including one of the film's characters) will ask why Harry doesn't just divorce Pat.  Well many formerly married couples will tell you that divorce is a messy business, a long, protracted misery in some cases, well, in almost all cases.  So a quick efficient kill will get the job done -- the thinking goes -- however illogical it might be.  Just look at real-life news headlines over past decades to inform you of the spouses who have actually gone down the killing road to rid themselves of the person they vowed they'd stay with "till death do us part" -- if only a little prematurely.  Did it make things "better" in the long run?

"Married Life" reveals that in the adult world complication doesn't often explain or justify anything except an unspoken expectation that the human heart will or can be tempted to deviate from the script of ordinary life. 

Mr. Cooper is more than adept at playing an intensely pained and conflicted being (he did this so brilliantly in "American Beauty" and "Breach" for example) and he gives Harry a sadness and isolation that is dispiriting and darn near pitiful.  There is a remarkable moment near the start of the film where Harry confesses to Pat that things aren't going to plan.  He doesn't say this as much as communicates it through a look during a silence that is devastating.  It is a look of resignation, contempt, anger but also (and less tellingly) relief.  Harry isn't the glamour character of this bunch but he is the most potent in his manifestation of torture and suffocation.  His fanciful fling leads less to nirvana than to further loneliness.  Mr. Brosnan is more or less the audience's conscience, a wistful galivanting type looking to fulfill his desires while trying to preserve his cake by casting aspersions on more or less the entire married population of the planet, cynically dispelling the idea of marriage and seeking to constructively wreck one (if only he could).  For all his involvement and meddling in marital misbehavior Richard stays to some degree on the periphery, even when he is more than a fly on the wall at times.  He is the film's most interesting character, but Pat is the most intriguing.  Less can be said of Kay, whom herself is deeply conflicted about her own emotional tug-of-war in the muddled and adulterated situation, and she is only as lonely as her desperate wish to live an engaging and fulfilling life. 

"Married Life" succeeds as entertainment, comedy, drama and a thought-provoking tale and is a sophisticated look at marital life and strife.  Mr. Sachs knows his characters inside and out and though a surprise or two springs forth on the big screen, some members of the audience will recognize themselves as well in this film.

"Married Life" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for some thematic elements and a scene of sexuality.  The film opened today in various cities including San Francisco, while continuing in Los Angeles and New York City.

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