Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

One of the more ethically dubious films to come out of Hollywood in years.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 18, 2008

It's a good cast, with Cooper outstanding, but Sachs's direction is stodgy and the screenplay is grindingly self-conscious.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 1, 2008

The movie is determinedly low-key, but honest, with a wrenching break-up scene, sharp work from Clarkson, and a final thought that lingers, about never really knowing what your other half is thinking.

| Aug 1, 2008

A well-acted but lugubrious noir, which is somehow not quite thrilling enough to be a thriller, and not quite profound enough to be a character study.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2008

The layers of deception are as meticulously constructed as the impeccable 1940s production and costume design. Unfortunately, the film doesn't maintain that distinctive noir cruelty, as hard as red lacquered finger nails.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2008

It looks beautiful, and the convoluted plotting is initially the right side of Hitchcock pastiche, but the central conundrum is teased out over so many twists and false climaxes that ultimately it's a shrug, not a shock, which greets the denouement.

| Original Score: 3/6 | Jul 31, 2008

It swings from Far From Heaven-alike lush melodrama to Double Indemnity-like noir to something approaching black comedy, and the transitions never quite work. Accomplished then, but no classic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 27, 2008

Sachs combines humor, suspense, and twists of plot that keep the ground shifting under our feet.

| Apr 13, 2008

Offers audiences movie pleasures, as well as emotionally authentic challenges.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 28, 2008

Married Life is an engaging romance noir, a sort of updated The Postman Always Rings Twice that packs its surprises into four characters, none of them predictable.

| Mar 27, 2008

[Director] Sachs has assembled a stellar ensemble cast, and much of the pleasure of Married Life is watching the subtle detail the actors bring to their roles.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 21, 2008

A curious, provocative if unsatisfying little movie.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 21, 2008

It's strange how a movie with this many different things happening could be so dull.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 21, 2008

This quiet, closed-in picture with its unsurprising twists and turns, lacks the steamy passion of its pulp roots.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 21, 2008

Sachs and Moverman have scripted a potboiler, but unwisely kept the lid on. Their intent is wry philosophical detachment; the effect is a biting social satire gone soggy.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 15, 2008

It's strange. It's different. It's arresting, and it's definitely intentional. Ira Sachs knew what he wanted to do, and he's a talent worth watching.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 14, 2008

Sirk or Billy Wilder could have done something with it. Sachs still has a ways to go.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 14, 2008

A macabre comedy of manners with the sting of dry ice, this 2007 ensemble piece captures the social climate of America in the late 40s.

| Mar 14, 2008

Married Life is structured like a Douglas Sirk melodrama or a Hitchcock thriller rather than a mystery, but it's a mystery nonetheless, because it's rarely clear what Sachs intends the movie to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Mar 14, 2008