An adaptation of John Bingham’s 1953 novel Five Roundabouts to Heaven, Ira Sachs’ new film represents an about-face after the more naturalistic style of the director’s superb 2005 Sundance prize-winner Forty Shades of Blue. With Married Life, Sachs uses the story’s ’50s setting as an excuse to replicate the Hollywood aesthetic of the era. Intriguing, well-played but somewhat stilted in its attempt to evoke both Douglas Sirk’s sumptuous melodramas and Alfred Hitchcock’s more light-hearted thrillers, the result has the same air of retro-fetishism as Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven and Peyton Reed’s Down With Love.

That the film plays as smoothly as it does is largely due to the excellence of the actors. Pierce Brosnan is on top form as Richard, a devious rake who plays havoc in the adulterous relationship between his straitlaced friend Harry (Chris Cooper) and Kay (Rachel McAdams), a young widow. Guilt-ridden over the affair, Harry has his own scheme in mind for wife Pat (Patricia Clarkson). Despite the rising passions, the movie’s tone stays cool and wry, perhaps too much so. As a result, Sachs’ fellow nostalgists will get the most out of Married Life, but the film’s vintage threads still boast considerable panache. 

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