Review by CJ

Director:
Peter Askin

Starring:
Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Lang

Other notable appearances:
Mike O’Malley, Kristen Connolly, Theo Stockman, Cara Buono

Running time:
102 minutes

Watch this if you liked:
Dolan’s Cadillac, Thinner, Dolores Claiborne

Darcy (Allen) and Bob (LaPaglia) have a good marriage. They have loved and supported each other for 25 years. But can Darcy continue to love and support Bob upon discovering his deepest, darkest secret?

A Good Marriage is a decent film adaptation from Stephen King’s novella of the same name. It has a very low budget or ‘made for television’ feel to it which is about par for the course for many film adaptations of Stephen King’s work. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t necessarily make a film bad, it’s just an observation on the aesthetics.

The low budget/made for television feel also extends to a lot of the acting work. In this case, it does detract from the film slightly as the acting feels clunky, unrefined and often over the top.

With character driven stories like this, the written work has the advantage of providing a deeper insight into the characters’ lives together and the main characters’ thought processes. A Good Marriage is no exception. However, the filmmakers have managed to portray a lot of background without resorting to voiceovers and built the characters well.

While I would absolutely recommend reading the novella and watching A Good Marriage as an accompaniment. Though if you’re not a big reader, A Good Marriage does give a pretty faithful retelling of a great story.

Rating:

“It’s blurred, like it’s two pennies.”
“Yeah, some people are that way too.”