Married Life | 
| Actor: Pierce Brosnan
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy Used: $1.44
You Save: $18.50 (93%)
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 27177
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Genre: none
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
ESRB: Teen
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.3 x 0.9
MPN: COLD25809D
UPC: 043396258099
EAN: 0043396258099
ASIN: B0013FZUP6
Theatrical Release Date: March 7, 2008
Release Date: September 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Far too many period productions look right, but feel wrong. Set in 1949, Married Life doesn't just bring the post-war era to vivid life with cigarettes and cocktails aplenty; it even plays like a product of the time. In that respect, it calls to mind AMC's Mad Men, except Ira Sachs (Forty Shades of Blue) takes a lighter tone towards domestic disharmony. In this well-scrubbed suburban world, middle-class wives, like Pat (Patricia Clarkson), build their lives around their husbands. Pat and Harry (Chris Cooper) seem happy, but Harry confesses to his pal, Richard (narrator Pierce Brosnan), that the spark is gone. He plans to leave Pat for vibrant young war widow Kay (Rachel McAdams in a role that recalls The Notebook). Once Richard, a notorious ladies man, gets a gander at the platinum blonde, he secretly sets out to win her affections, while Harry plots to take Pat out of the picture. Married Life almost simulates one of Alfred Hitchcock's pessimistic disquisitions on matrimony, yet Harry and Richard seek less hurtful means to achieve their goals. Though women's lib has yet to hit the suburbs, Pat and Kay harbor desires of their own, and the best-laid plans soon go awry. Though Kay could use further development, this ensemble hums along almost as harmoniously as the quartet in Starting Out in the Evening. Along with co-writer Oren Moverman (I'm Not There), Sachs transforms John Bingham's 1953 novel, Five Roundabouts to Heaven, into an insightful treatise on love, marriage, and fidelity. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Product Description
A strong blend of suspense, star-crossed romance and wry comedy of manners, Married Life is an unconventional human drama about the irresistible power and utter madness of love. Harry (Chris Cooper) decides he must kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) because he loves her too much to let her suffer when he leaves her. Harry and his much younger girlfriend Kay (Rachel McAdams) are head over heels in love but his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) wants to win Kay for himself. As Harry implements his awkward plan for murdering his wife, the other characters are occupied with their own deceptions. Like Harry, they are overwhelmed by their passions, but still struggle to avoid hurting others. Married Life is an uncommonly adult film that surprises and confounds expectations. While it plays with mystery and intrigue, its ultimate concern is: What is Married Life? In its sly way, Married Life poses perceptive questions about the seasonal discontents and unforeseen joys of of all long-term relationships.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Quiet look on married life May 7, 2009
Reader (Chicago, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Married life is a mystery, not only in late 40s, time when the events of this movie take place, but rather since beginning of time. Pat and Harry have known each other since they were children. They have been married for a long time. But perhaps because they know each other so well, their marriage is predictable and tejir interaction civilized. Without each other knowing about the other, they both have love affairs outside of the mariage. Pat with a young writer and Harry with a beautiful and lonely war widow. In spite of being in love with their new love interests, both Pat and Harry are hesitant to divorce each other in fear not to hurt the other emotionally. So is it better to simply kill off the other person and spare them the pain of humiliation?
As love triangles go and notions of what excitement married life gives, this is one of the most interesting movies I have seen. The slow pace of the careful storytelling is mesmerizing as we learn about each person's inner battles, desires and motives.
 What you see conflicts with what you hear May 3, 2009
Douglas B. Moran (Palo Alto, CA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The story itself is negligible and uninteresting. For some period pieces, this is not a problem because the visuals or the character studies are the core of the movie. But here, the visuals were nothing special (other reviewers here disagreed). And the characters were poorly rendered--clearly the fault of the writers, not the actors (who just had nothing to work with).
For example, the dialog _says_ that Richard (Pierce Brosnan) is a womanizer, but what we _see_ is quite different. There are similar disconnects for all the other characters.
Similarly the (trivial) story arc depends entirely on the voice-over--without it, I would have had a complete different interpretation of events. Without the audio, I _never_ would have thought that Harry (Chris Cooper) was in love with Kay (McAdams) nor she with him. Nor would I have suspected that Richard and Harry were more than casual acquaintances.
The sequence where we are waiting to find out whether Harry has murdered his wife is so far beyond over-wrought and over-extended that I became angry at the movie for being so blatant in trying to jerk my emotions around.
 Married Life by Brandon M. Moskos March 16, 2009
Brandon Moskos
This is a movie about married life in the late 40's. It shows a married couples' problem in that time period and how leaving your wife or husband was not an option in that era. Both the husband and wife are not in love anymore and they're both cheating, but they will not ask for a divorce, because they can't bare to see the other person unhappy. This was true that divorce did not happen in this time period, but I thought the story that the husband would rather see his wife dead than divorce her is crazy. The movie was suspenseful, but I thought it was unfunny and not that entertaining. I recommend renting this movie rather than buying, this movie was average.
 Time to find a new bedmate... January 28, 2009
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
So, truth be told, this cast is very impressive. Chris Cooper is a very commanding presence who has recently proven his star has yet to fade (watch him work the screen ten times over in `Breach'); Pierce Brosnan is a very charming and infectious actor who knows how to deliver a delicate and nuanced performance (watch him act his butt off in `Evelyn'); Rachel McAdams is one of those actresses to watch out for, working to break out of her teen queen title with interesting choices (watch her steal every ounce of limelight with her Oscar snubbed `Mean Girls' performance); and Patricia Clarkson, I mean really, don't get me started on how amazing she is. Watch anything she touches and see a screen presence that is beyond words. Whether she is quietly breaking to pieces (ala `Dogville'), charismatically unraveling (ala `Pieces of April') or weighing in with a delicate bravado (ala `Far From Heaven') she is always a notch above the rest.
So with a cast this impressive this film is bound to be...boring?
I walked into `Married Life' eager to see something amazing and what I got was something I longed to see end. It was dry, meandering and uninteresting. It's sad, because the performances by all four actors were very, very good. In a different movie I'd say that they were all Oscar worthy. The pacing and mood setting was just too unbearable though, taking away every ounce of life these actors breathed into their characters.
So the film tells of a strange love triangle (or should I say square, or is it a hexagon) that forms between friends. Harry is married to Pat, and while Harry loves Pat he is `in love' with Kay who is young and vibrant and makes him feel needed. Harry's best friend is Richard, who upon meeting Kay is instantly smitten. Richard falls in love with Kay and wants her all to himself, which seems possible beings that Harry is determined not to hurt his wife. Richard's ideal plan is soon hampered by the unraveling of Pat's dark secret, not to mention the fact that Harry, in an attempt to spare his wife the pain of divorce, has decided to kill her instead.
Yes, there is a lot going on here, and it all sounds so intriguing; but it's not.
It's the pacing that kills this one and it's because of that monotone delivery that I'll never watch it again. It nearly put me to sleep and it took me two evenings just to get through it, and it wasn't like I started it late in the evening; I simply couldn't watch it any longer.
It was that dull.
I feel bad for the cast and maybe even the screenwriter, who at least attempted to write a tightly woven and interesting marital thriller, but director Ira Sachs (I just noticed that he helped pen this thing too so maybe I don't feel bad for the screenwriter) botches this one up quite a bit. Like I said, the acting is a saving grace (especially from Clarkson and Cooper) but in the end this marriage is not worth saving.
Oh, and so we are clear, the comparisons to `Mad Men' are quite disturbing beings that the television show is far from boring and unbelievably engrossing; something that this film is far from.
Seductive and surprising film January 7, 2009
Amy Steele (Boston, MA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The film zips along with its solid script, witty and snappy dialogue and thoughtful and deliciously unpredictable moments. More than once, I was literally at the edge of my seat holding my breath. In 1949, it's a simpler time with diners, luncheons, tea, radio, and dancing on the town or to the picture show as an actual night out. There's something overall romantic about this time. The narration, which I have grown tired of as a plot device (I see it as such a short cut to the main ideas too often), actually works here in adding to the overall nostalgia and quaintness. Many scenes are like Hopper paintings come alive making Married Life a visual treat as well as a compelling film.
The cast is impressive from Pierce Brosnan (The Matador, Die Another Day) to Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (Adaptation, Breach) to indie steady Patricia Clarkson (Lars and the Real Girl). Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers, The Notebook) is lovely and so good in these period roles. She looks comfortable and there are layers of sweetness under that platinum hair. Clarkson possesses the right amount of mischief and devotion in her role as the dutiful, seemingly predictable wife. Brosnan is brooding and complex and yummy. I just couldn't buy the Cooper vs. Brosnan though. Hands down I would take a wolf in Brosnan's clothing instead of a sheep like Cooper's character. Cooper/McAdams give the impression of father/daughter more than older man/younger woman. But please don't let that stop you, somehow it all flows along. I suppose that in Harry, a young widow would view safe and secure instead of adventure and excitement in a guy like Rich. The entire cast is so ridiculously talented that you come to like every character in some way.
Married Life is a fantastic film that will seduce you from its first scene to its last.
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