Review

Review Date: 30-March-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Married Life (2008)

I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of psychiatric drugs. If a doctor tells you to take a chemical substance so that you will feel less angry or scattered and fit into the ways of society, what do you give up in return? Does creativity survive when reactions are modulated? Can personality persist when emotions are squashed? If trips to the pharmacy are integral to life, are you still fully you?

Like most things that make me uncomfortable, I do not ponder these questions often, but the movie "Married Life" brought them to mind. For according to filmmaker Ira Sachs, marriage is like an addictive and sedative drug. Unlike romantic love, which tends to make people crazy, marriage is formulated to bring out people's placid side. It molds them by smoothing out their wrinkles and providing a refuge from the harshness of reality. It does this, of course, at the expense of passion, so it is not entirely pleasant to behold.

The viewer of "Married Life" is joined in beholding by its narrator, a randy bachelor played by Pierce Brosnan. His calm voice-over portending murder and mayhem jibes well with the late-1940s setting, which is always welcome to the eye. He relates how his friend Harry (Chris Cooper in yet another superb performance) recently decided to leave his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) so he could marry somebody else. As Harry explains it, Pat has never truly loved him during their long and fruitful marriage because of her fatally unromantic nature. For years they have looked after each other warmly but she has never made him feel desired. Not like the mistress who loves him for himself.

Rachel McAdams as the Other Woman looks like the poster child for femmes fatales, yet she quickly reveals herself to be something more … and less. With her bleached blond hair and scarlet lips she certainly fascinates, but it is hard to accept her as a lost soul who really loves Harry, no matter how romantic he wants to be. It is also hard to swallow whole that Harry begins planning to murder Pat, judging this to be more quick and merciful than the embarrassment and regret of divorce. If matrimony has made him that attuned to her comfort, could he justify killing her out of selfishness? The surprise that Pat has up her sleeve is more plausible, and it saves the movie from becoming a standard tale of an idiot committing a crime of desperation.

As the story reaches a climax everyone, including the narrator, receives a lesson on marriage as both shipwreck and anchor in the stormy adult sea. Like the passions of a husband and wife, the characters are sacrificed to the importance of this point, making "Married Life" a bit stilted and more than a bit cynical. At its best it is a showcase for several fine actors and fodder for consideration, if one is so inclined. Perhaps longtime spouses might find it bracing or amusing to watch together. On second thought, maybe not.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.