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Derek Malcolm's rating
Star-crossed story of Married Life
By
Derek Malcolm
31 Jul 2008
You could call this Ira Sachs film an ironic and star-crossed romance. It is about a husband (Chris Cooper) who plans to murder his wife (Patricia Clarkson) in order to leave home with his younger mistress (Rachel McAdams). His strange idea is that, since he’s still very fond of her, he doesn’t want her to suffer the separation. The story is told through the eyes of the husband’s best friend (a louche Pierce Brosnan) who has an eye on the mistress himself.
Each character is occupied largely by their own obsessions but still struggles to avoid the inevitable hurt those passions imply. It’s a good cast, with Cooper outstanding, but Sachs’s direction is stodgy and the screenplay is grindingly self-conscious. At least, however, there is a good story to be told and Sachs’s way of telling it may be deliberately old-fashioned, like a familiar Hollywood love story turned inside out.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
