Married Life DVD Review

When Harry (Chris Cooper) announces to his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) that his marriage is over, it comes as a shock. Harry is an ordinary sort of man, unlike Richard who is a bachelor still living large, so it comes to a shock when Harry introduces his beautiful young mistress, Kay (Rachael McAdams). Richard is instantly envious of his friend, looking for an opportunity to make her his own. Meanwhile Harry decides that he doesn’t have the strength to hurt his wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), with a divorce, and decides to murder her instead. Surprisingly, Harry isn’t concerned with the fact that Kay is much younger and very beautiful, but that she connects emotionally with him. Pat, on the other hand, sees love as sex, which is far too unromantic for Harry to accept from a wife.

The rationale may be difficult to swallow, especially since the film is believably conceived with well-developed characters, and perhaps this explains the 1940s setting. This being a time when divorce truly was a shameful thing to many people, it makes a bit more sense that Harry would decide he couldn’t hurt Pat that way, but the attempted murder is a leap that must be taken into darker territory. These are complex characters with all kinds of faults, betraying each other in order to fulfill selfish urges, but at the same time capable of loving behavior. Kay may be the adulteress, but she is also a sensitive and damaged woman, already widowed from the war and tortured by her time apart from her new love.

Although married life has moments of humor as Harry attempts to kill his wife in a bumbling and nervous manner, there are far more moments that are focused on the reality of married life. Harry wanting to kill his wife is more of an example of how easy it is to know little of what is in your partner’s head than it is a driving point of the film. In fact, very little happens beyond obvious deception in Married Life, and although there are indiscretions, they seem to remain silently hidden away.

Understandably so, there are three alternate endings in the special features. I found something about the ending slightly unsatisfying, although the other attempts also fall somewhat short of expectations. There is also a commentary track with director Ira Sachs.