With a mischievous nod toward the slyer nature of Alfred Hitchcock, "Married Life" is, on one level, about two men obsessed with one woman. On another, it's about killing someone with kindness. And on still another, it's about the mysteries of marital bonds - and how they are sometimes phony.
While touching all these bases, it is a near-miss that is somewhat sunk by its ultra-slow pace and weak payoff.
In the meantime, it keeps its audience on its toes.
At the outset, we learn that a well-to-do businessman (Chris Cooper) is in love with a knockout platinum blonde (Rachel McAdams) but is reluctant to leave his wife (Patricia Clarkson) because he feels she is so devoted to him that she would fall apart if he left. He begins to think that the kind thing to do would be to murder her.
Lurking in the background is a silver-tongued playboy (Pierce Brosnan) who forthrightly (and quite sensibly) regards marriage as "a kind of mild illness - like the flu." He has always been intrigued that his friend, Cooper, is involved in what appears to be that rare thing - a happy marriage. He dismisses it with, "It happens."
Brosnan, though, is mightily impressed when he gets a look at Cooper's mistress. Lipstick and bottled blonde turn him on, and he can't fathom why such a chick would be interested in a nebbish businessman. He'd like to get into this picture.
What we have here is not a triangle but a quartet, and something has to give. It takes its time about developing, though. Director Ira Sachs keeps his actors at a dead-pan, dry level that is played, one supposes, for dark humor. We wouldn't know what, if anything, they feel if they didn't tell us directly. Is Harry, the husband, a conscience-ridden, confused man finding first love or is he a dirty old man with murder on his mind? Is the blonde the faithful war widow who is comforted by him or does she have ulterior motives? Is the wife really so tolerant of her boring husband?
Clarkson gives the film's best performance as the kind of aggressive wife who is aware that she runs the show. She, like her husband, feels that he depends totally on her, although she points out that there is only one reason for marriage - sex. "The rest is just affection and companionship." Her husband would like more emotion.
Slow, slow pacing obscures a great deal to the point that the questions are a good deal more interesting than the answers.
The film, however, masterfully captures its period - 1949. Every detail is authentic; the movie even opens with a sunny song from Doris Day. The moral dilemma of the era, too, is suggested. This is post-war America, when the guys are coming back after seeing Paris but there is an effort to make everything proper again. The masks people wore before the war are put on again.
Brosnan is convinced he has to make a play for the blonde when he goes to the movies and sees Ava Gardner in "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman." (Yes, we are treated to a sizable film clip. In the realm of fantasy romance, it is a classic. Rent it and see for yourself.)
In another segment, Brosnan and McAdams go to see the Western, "Streets of Laredo" starring William Holden. The role of movies in the culture of 1949 is amply suggested.
Cooper is perfect at playing emotionally constricted weirdos, and he has the perfect role here. (He won the Oscar for the overrated "Adaptation.") Brosnan, still vying to escape James Bond, is smooth. McAdams could be one of the most charismatic young stars going if she just made more films. (She was the perfect modern Southern belle in 2004's "The Notebook." Interested? It's airing tonight at 9 on CBS.)
Although McAdams is done up to look like Kim Novak in "Vertigo," director Sachs is no Hithcock. Hitch was always adept at suggesting more than he showed. Sachs is saddled with telling us what we need to know.
An intriguing little near- miss, "Married Life" is nonetheless worth seeing. The style and contradicting characters are enough to keep you going for most of the delightfully brief 90 minutes.
Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com
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