Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23689 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-01-30
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Synopsis
Jack Linden (Mark Ruffalo) and Hank Evans (Peter Krause) are best friends who both teach at the same university in a small New England town. They both have young children and Jack's wife, Terry (Laura Dern) is close with Hank's wife, Edith (Naomi Watts). But while things appear happy on the surface, there are smouldering pockets of discontent underneath. Financial struggle and domestic boredom has drained the passion from Jack and Terry's marriage, while Hank's numerous infidelities and self-absorption has prompted Edith to find both comfort and sexual fulfilment with Jack. As Jack begins spending more and more time with Edith, it becomes obvious to Terry, whose anger culminates in a sexual encounter with Hank. Now that the deception has come full circle, both couples are left to decide the futures of their shattered unions. With a screenplay that incorporates 'We Don't Live Here Anymore' and 'Adultery', two short stories by Andre Dubus (IN THE BEDROOM), John Curran's film appears deceptively simple. While it's a garden-variety tale of suburban ennui and infidelity on the surface, it is brought to multi-layered life with a quartet of elegantly nuanced performances that fit together like the interlocking pieces of a puzzle. Plot is almost secondary to the emotional sparks that Ruffalo, Dern, Krause, and Watts give off, expertly and in equal measure.

Customer Reviews

A slow burner about 2 married couples
I like this film, but realise that this is not for everyone by any means, this moves along at a gentle pace, both couples are also friends with one another, one couple are on the verge of splitting up whist the other couple are only really looking for a bit of fun.

There are some really good one liners from Mark Ruffalo in particular who stands out above the rest on the cast all of whom are good and solid too.

This is a life film more than anything else, it's not a romantic film as such, there is romance to a degree, sometimes it is quite brutal, this is well worth taking a look if you're curious.

Shows the bleakness of exhausted relationships
This is not an easy film. It shows two married couples who are good friends and their relationships within and between the couples. It shows well the bleakness of relationships which have lost their love. The adultery is a symptom of the dying love, not the cause. The miasma that lies across the film from beginning to end is the lack of any real communication. Conversation, even in the thrill of making love to their best friend's partner, is superficial and totally lacking in passion. Tendresse is absent. Only cynicism posing as wit adds any zest to dialogue, although there are the usual stand up rows. The Laura Dern character is really the only one to show that her love for her husband is intact yet this is crushed relentlessly but ultimately she is the one who best adjusts to her circumstances.

Many of us will have suffered the breakdown of relationships and this film has unpleasant resonances because it is so close to the bone. The title could refer to the loveless marriages, emptied of the feelings they once possessed, like the echoing, bare rooms of a deserted house.

Be patient, and you might this film quite beautiful.
Whether you enjoy this film or not is, in the large, down to you.
You could view it and believe the pace to be sluggish, the whole temperature of the film tepid and the plot over used and with nothing new to offer.
Admittedly if you want a fast pace and something grippping, this won't be your cup of tea. But you may enjoy it because, these actors have done a wonderful job. This film is subtle, it requires for you to have a little patience and understand this isn't meant to come across as a deeply over dramatised film, we're meant to see these characters as real. They've crafted their roles carefully, they're all flawed, like in reality, they are also, thank God, not all polished, perfectly dressed Hollywood Barbies. They are two good looking men, and their wives are different, yet attractive. Naomi in this role looks very different, she looks like a boring suburban mum.
If you look a little harder and think of these people and their struggle as real, you'll see beautiful acting, a subtlety that makes this film believable, a lovely score that brings out the films underlying sorrow and a script that shows the reality of adultery and marriage, without the frills.

A lovely film, if you're prepared to be patient.