Married Life Details

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A disappointing and unrewarding experience

Set in the late 1940s, this is quite a pointless attempt at, well, being an enjoyable film. It is quite harmless really, but that in itself is quite a crime. With the talent involved, it is not wrong to expect something with a little more substance.

Chris Cooper plays Harry, who is having an affair with a glamourous young widow (played by Rachel McAdams), but is torn about how to split from his current wife, Pat, played by Patricia Clarkson. He has the bright idea that she couldn't possibly recover from a divorce and would never find happiness if Harry left her, so Harry's solution is to... kill her. Of course. What a wonderful idea...

Pierce Brosnan's character, Ritchie, narrates the film (a pointless feature which adds nothing) and the former Bond smirks his way through the movie in a very unchallenging role for him (check out existential western Seraphim Falls for Brosnan's career best...). Chris Cooper is excellent as always, making quite a pathetic character at least sympathetic, of sorts - but he is far better than this material. Patricia Clarkson will not earn an easier paycheque, I suspect, than with this quite inconsequential role. Rachel McAdams, with a suitably Monroe-esque blonde rinse, is the surprise here - a performance of restraint and tenderness, hers is the most impressive showing.

But good grief, this is a silly trite little movie. Go and watch something like Bright Young Things or Gosford Park instead, for a period movie with a sombre twist.

Maried Life

Not bad film, but not worth buying or watching again.