Married Life (2008), PG-13

Chris Cooper, and Patricia Clarkson in Married Life. (Photo: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment)

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson

After entering into a passionate affair with a much younger woman, an unhappily married man resorts to murder as a means of sparing his frigid wife the humiliation of divorce in director Ira Sachs' suspenseful film noir. Set in the 1940s, Marriage tells the tale of Harry (Chris Cooper) -- a man whose faithful but emotionally distant wife (Patricia Clarkson) has become all but impossible to love. Smitten by the beautiful Kay (Rachel McAdams) but ultra-sensitive to the shame associated with divorce, Harry opts to poison his wife as a means of allowing the marriage to end with her pride still intact. Harry's scheme soon goes horribly awry, however, when after revealing the plan to his best friend, Richard (Pierce Brosnan), Richard too falls in love with the ethereal young beauty and sets into motion a cunning plan all his own. A serpentine tale of murderous deception, Marriage was co-scripted by director Sachs and screenwriter Oren Moverman. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide