NYFF. Married Life.

"Married Life is a hermetic, sardonic, downright chilly production, vaguely in debt to the surface sparkle of Douglas Sirk's postwar melodramas but lacking even an ounce of their compassion," writes Akiva Gottlieb at Slant.

Ira Sachs "just doesn't have much to say about marriage other than that it's complex, and often fraught with disappointment, deception and conflicting urges, none of which comes across as particularly enlightening to anyone who's ever been in a relationship (or seen a movie about one)," writes Nick Schager.

"[W]hat is most surprising in this day and age of our country's non-stop hypocritical, sanctimonious ramblings about the 'sanctity of marriage' is how the film balances on the knife's edge between kitschy period pastiche and heartfelt melodrama," writes Tom Hall.

"The film doesn't quite come together but it's better, and certainly less cynical, than generally dismissive notices in the New York Times and Variety might suggest," writes Robert Cashill. "And sartorially it does for 1949 what Mad Men does for 1960; we need to start wearing good hats again."

"Married Life isn't set in actual period America, it's set in movie period America," writes Alison Willmore at the IFC Blog. It "emerges not as another winking exercise in genre stylings but as a believable and darkly funny account of a time in the lives of four people."

Online listening tip. Keith Uhlich talks with Sachs for the House Next Door.

Earlier: Reviews and previews from Toronto and NYFF.

Posted by dwhudson at October 14, 2007 1:43 PM