(Rated R)
Adulterous from the get-go, two couples, whose lives are intertwined as best friends, are attracted to each other’s spouses. Mark Ruffalo is married to Laura Dern. Peter Krause is married to Naomi Watts. As in any real life affair, the traumas, responsibilities and children are left at home, bringing only fantasy and flight into the affair. And as in any martial situation, we feel like we are standing in their livingroom watching them argue (and often feeling like we should excuse ourselves to another place). The couples are very believable – desperate, overwhelmed, angry, fed up – all the elements of a marriage gone astray, but despite over the top performances, something else is terribly wrong. How do we care about people who don’t seem to care about themselves? And more than that, how can we root for people who would stoop so low as to sleep with their best friend’s wife? Find an anonymous lover already!! Or in the case of Ruffalo, just get a divorce. Dern is a fantastic as an actress (stealing the movie with her abrasive annoyance) but certainly the type of non-ambitious, sloppy, housekeeper, wife any man would have walked out on years ago.
