'Married Life'
Harry (Chris Cooper) confesses to his lifelong friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) that he is going to leave his wife, Pat (Patricia Clarkson), for Kay (Rachel McAdams), a docile younger woman. But when Richard meets Kay, he decides to steal her himself. The story is original, the characters complex, and the film is by turns a work of wry humor, then skullduggery, then psychological realism in Hitchcock wrapping paper. The half-hopeful finale casts a corrosive eye on happily-ever-after fade-outs. (Rated PG-13.)
- Colin Covert
'Sleepwalking'
The melodrama of a broken family haunted by its past receives a forceful but ultimately flawed workout here. Charlize Theron plays Joleen, whose boyfriend is busted for growing pot, forcing her and her 11-year-old daughter, Tara (AnnaSophia Robb), to move in with Joleen's maladjusted brother James (Nick Stahl). But the realism that makes the first part of the film so compelling gives way to heavy-handed stylization, and the story grows more and more unconvincing. (Rated R.)
- Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
