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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   "Married Life" Low-key: Unusual film that seems more interested in its characters than in the suspense plot. An unhappily married man (Chris Cooper) decides to kill his wife (Patricia Clarkson) in order to be with his new love (Rachel McAdams); best friend Pierce Brosnan does more than observe. Nice late-1940s atmosphere adds to the appeal. Rated: PG-13 rating is for language, subject matter Now showing: Guild 45th   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, March 21, 2008 'Married Life': Characters count as much as suspense By Robert Horton. Herald Movie Critic Using limited means, "Married Life" conjures up a particular moment in the late 1940s. This is not a big-budget movie, so the details -- highball glasses, handsome clothes, cigarettes -- conjure up the period. That's one of the key attractions for this unusual, grown-up movie. It's based on a 1950s novel called "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" by John Bingham, a man who was long involved in the British secret service (and mentored John le Carre; in fact, le Carre says he modeled his famous spy George Smiley after Bingham). The title change suggests that director Ira Sachs has more on his mind than the suspense plot. But the suspense is rather well-handled. A successful man, Harry (Oscar-winner Chris Cooper), is disenchanted with his marriage. He confides to his best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) that his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson) lacks soul. In fact, she's mostly interested in sex. Poor Harry has grander needs, which are now focused on a young war widow, Kay (Rachel McAdams, of "The Notebook"), with whom he's having an affair. This would be easy to shrug off as a midlife crisis, except that Harry is convinced his wife couldn't handle a divorce. It would be much kinder, he concludes, if he just quietly killed her. There's another complication, which is that Richard, a rogue of the highest order, is also smitten with Kay. Harry, not the sharpest tool in the shed, doesn't suspect a thing. Director Sachs, who made the fascinating mood piece "Forty Shades of Blue," takes a different tack here. The movie hits the eye like a studio movie of its era, with a foursquare, slightly over-lit look. In some shots, Pierce Brosnan looks exactly like Fred MacMurray in the classic film noir "Double Indemnity." Yet the attitude feels modern and open. The characters played by Brosnan and Clarkson, in particular, are intriguing beyond the machinations of the plot, people whose attitudes belong in a different era. Strange film, but its low-key approach plays well. And it continues Brosnan's terrific post-007 run (including "The Matador" and "Seraphim Falls"). He still seems to be wearing the excellent threads from the Bond days, and he still knows how to handle a martini.

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