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Married Life

The world of half-baked ideas

By PETER KEOUGH | March 12, 2008

1.5 Stars

MARRIED LIFE: Join Patricia Clarkson and Chris Cooper in the world of half-baked ideas!

Some fine actors fail to animate Ira Sachs’s inexplicable period exercise, a stagy melodrama that’s supposed to be set in the post–World War II middle class but never emerges from the world of half-baked ideas. Smarmy Richard (Pierce Brosnan) walks us through the plot convolutions with a voiceover narrative about his best pal, Harry (Chris Cooper), whose perfect marriage to Pat (Patricia Clarkson) unravels after he begins an affair with vulnerable Kay (Rachel McAdams). Harry believes that Pat would be devastated without him, so he decides that rather than let her suffer, he’ll poison her. Huh? This choice is never really explored; instead the film becomes a song and dance about who knew what when, with cynical Richard holding most of the cards and the whole thing ending with a coda that winks the message “Ain’t life ironic!” Maybe Sam Mendes’s upcoming adaptation of Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road will offer a more genuine look at the moral and cultural battleground of this period. 90 minutes | Kendall Square + Embassy

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