“Married Life” a Retro Mystery of Romantic Intrigue

Published March 28th, 2008

“Married Life” a Retro Film Noir for Adult Audiences

Thanks to Miami International Film Festival, I got an early screening and a chance to meet the writer-director of “Married Life” and two of its stars.

“Married Life” is a crackling good romantic thriller set in 1949 and written in the “film noir” tradition of Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang and Orson Welles, by Ira Sachs and Oren Moverman.

“I found a book by a British writer named John Bingham called `Five Roundabouts to Heaven’, “ explained Ira Sachs in Miami Beach. “Bingham was a MI5 intelligence agent. John Le Carre said he was his inspiration for the character of George Smiley. The story was about a deceitful husband in an unhappy marriage. We based our plot loosely on that premise.”

The deceitful husband is Harry Allen, played by Chris Cooper. Allen is a prosperous New York executive married to Pat (Patricia Clarkson), a loyal but unexciting partner. On the side he is having an affair with Kay (Rachel McAdams), a beautiful, much younger war widow.

The story is told by Harry’s best friend, Richard Langley (Pierce Brosnan). Richard is a womanizing confirmed bachelor, but meeting Kay soon changes his ideas about love and life.

“Married Life” revolves about a diabolical plot by Harry to do away with his wife and live happily ever after. Nothing is quite as it seems with Harry, Pat, Kay or Richard, and while the story resolves a little too conveniently, it is suspenseful entertainment.

Chris Cooper has made a career of playing villains. Harry is a much more complex, milquetoast kind of villain.

“Harry is a man starved for affection,” Cooper says. “He really is a romantic stuck in a joyless marriage for 25 years, and it’s taken a toll.”

Patricia Clarkson may be the one having the most fun.

“I see Pat as a modern woman,’ says Clarkson. “She is genuinely sexual and sensual, and she finds a way out of her trap.”

Ira Sachs sums it up: “It’s a film for adults. People in their 40s and 50s rarely get to see a movie about themselves. This their chance.”