Very often films which are defiant of genre categorisation can easily come across as messy and imprecise, but in Ira Sachs’ “Married Life,” he blends dark comedy, suspense and stylish melodrama into a contemporary throwback, conceptualised from a male perspective, to the film noir facet of the glamour of the 40’s in a wholesome package that keeps the viewer on their toes every step of the way. Audiences will either revel in the manner in which the film strays from a singular course or they will find annoyance in the seemingly directionless film, with an insubordinate mixture of tones and principles, in a way that very much resembles reality. What the film does not manage to do is balance its daring concept will an entirely fulfilling outcome, and perhaps “Married Life” is too modest for its own good.

Harry (Chris Cooper) has decided that he is obliged to kill his wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson), for he shall leave her. It will be a sort of merciful, assisted death. One born out of a will to do no harm, not the other way around. He is no longer content with his marriage and is clearly not getting what it is he needs from his wife. He has wandered from the comforts, or in this case discomfort, of marriage, right into the arms of the instantly arresting Kay (Rachel McAdams) who has fallen just as hard for him as he has her. She is a striking blonde-haired woman, with crimson red lipstick so deep that when she speaks, you dare not look away. She also has a past, which we are made aware of but she still maintain a mysterious overtone, making her young, twenty-something-year-old character seem wise beyond her years, almost the exact opposite of Pat. The grass is always greener on the other side.

If Harry divorces his wife, he believes that she would not be able to recover. Harry’s best friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) becomes hypnotised by Kay and wants him for himself, further complicating matters. The further Harry implements his maladroit plans for murdering his wife, the more the other characters become entangled in their own various deceptions. Like Harry, they race towards their intense passions but trip over their consciences, seemingly well intended towards all, but truthful to none. “Married Life” is an uncommonly mature film for adults that surprises and but does not confound expectations, one that illuminates the simplicity that would be present in life if honesty and integrity where only applied in the selfish pursuit of marital happiness. But what fun would that be if they were honest to the core? The more the characters become clouded by their own oblivious outlooks, the more appealing things get onscreen. The mixture of sex and sensibility, with almost no shred of sensibility, gives the film a rare whimsical overtone, an intimate touch that only heightens the deeper, more mature passion.

Pitch-perfecting casting is the films biggest asset. Chris Cooper was born to play roles of men who are emotionally suppressed and end up living quiet lives of aching desperation. He has done it repeatedly, and he gets better every time. His character has continuously stuffed all his anger and torment neatly under his suave suits and buttoned them up as best as he could. However, when the monumental weight of all his internal repression gets the better of him, what’s a man to do? Especially a respectable, considerate and an obviously damaged man that we have no choice but to sympathise with him. Just as good as Cooper is, and this came as a surprise to me, Brosman matches him. His representation of a man with questionable morals is interesting because his devil-may-care attitude is clearly a mask with which he covers his vulnerability, a role which Cary Grant would have had a blast with. Clarkson and McAdams are always effervescent no matter how undefined and underdeveloped their roles may be, and where Clarkson is already an established screen presence, the film will no doubt mark a high point in McAdams career, her transition into darker, more dramatic, and ultimately more challenging material begins in this film. In addition, it suits her to no end, the same can be said for her bottle-blonde do – she is almost unrecognizable, but her smile can melt a man, which makes the fact that she gets two well-poised men going out of their minds just to be with her, entirely believable.

“Married Life” works because it comes across as deftly calculated, and it is also marred by the fact that it comes across as deftly calculated. The film would have benefited greatly from a more spontaneous revelation, rather than a relentlessly hushed one, and consequently the film falls pray to the troubles that its characters suffer from, submission to more than one ideal that in turn creates unnatural repression. Nonetheless, the atmospheric film with its excellent production design is unlike any film to come out in recent memory, one that manages to blend a variety of different ideas into a moderately coherent reconstruction of lost genres with a mediocre level of insight. The true power of “Married Life” comes from its impact on the viewer when they leave the cinema and get home, and have no choice but to begin to question their relationships in their own lives. Do we really know what out better halves are thinking and feeling all the time? Of course not, and it is the utter mysteriousness of the affair that makes love, and seeing this film, worth it.

Fatac Rating: ***

Married Life. Directed by Ira Sachs. Written by Ira Sachs and Oren Moverman based on the novel “Five Roundabouts to Heaven” by John Bingham. Cinematography by Peter Deming. Music by Dickon Hinchliffe. Costumes by Michael Dennison. Production Design by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski. Starring: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson and Rachel McAdams. Running Time: 90 minutes. Age Restriction: 13 V. Year: 2008. Rating out of five stars.