married life

Despite its 53% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I thoroughly enjoyed the film Married Life. Harry Allen (Chris Cooper) and his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) have a seemingly happy life. Only Harry is secretly having an affair with Kay (Rachel McAdams) and is plotting to leave Pat. Unable to tell Pat that he wants out of the marriage for fear of hurting her too badly, Harry decides that the kindest option is to kill Pat. But what Harry doesn’t know is that his best friend and confidant, Richard, (Pierce Brosnan) has also fallen for Kay. The movie has a nice, slow-pace that many of the critics disliked, but I thought suited the film perfectly.

It is a dark comedy and works, in a way, like a good short story. Instead of delving too much into character background, the film instead presents a snapshot of the characters in a specific period of time. This allows for an easier suspension of disbelief surrounding Harry’s bizarre actions and the film leaves the audience to ponder character motivation long after the credits have rolled.