Directed
by Peter Askin, Starring: Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Lang. Thriller,
US, 2014, 102mins, Cert 15.Shortly
after celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary, Darcy Anderson (Joan
Allen) accidentally discovers that her coin-collecting accountant husband Bob
(Anthony LaPaglia) has a very disturbing secret. Burdened with this dreadful
knowledge, Darcy wrestles with her conscious as to what she should do next -
and whether or not she and Bob can in anyway maintain what she’d previously
thought was a ‘good marriage’.
Stephen
King can’t have any complaints about this adaption of his novella as he wrote
the screenplay. But unfortunately, even its creator can’t overcome the problem
so many other screen translations have failed to tackle successfully in dealing
with King’s writing: namely, the inability to convey the inner-workings of his
characters. Case in point, A GOOD MARRIAGE. This is essentially a character
study, inspired by a real-life scenario, which poses the ‘what if?’ question –
a frequent starting point for King’s fiction. What if the person with whom
you’ve shared your bed with for the past 25 years is actually a monster – what
would you do about it and would anyone believe that you truly had no idea during
all that time? On the printed page, King is a master at poking and probing into
the psyches of his New-England protagonists – but on screen, without this
interior reasoning, the result here appears flat and uninspiring.
“Oh
honey, this is not some movie where the psycho husband chases the screaming
wife round the house” says hubby Bob at one point in the film. No indeed it
isn’t, but unfortunately any film with Stephen King’s name on the poster brings
with it the expectation - at the very least – of chills, thrills and the
occasional spill. (And the trailer is guilty of encouraging this misconception
by the way).
Actress
Joan Allen is indelibly etched in my mind’s eye as Tom Noonan’s blind
girlfriend, listening to a sedated tiger’s heartbeat in Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER
(1986). As with her befriending of Francis Dollarhyde’s ‘Red Dragon’, here too
she plays a character blind (figuratively speaking this time) to the true nature
of her companion. It’s a tricky role to pull off without the benefit of author
King’s internal voiceover, but as the anchor of the film she does convey a
stoic steeliness. Anthony LaPaglia on the other hand, has an impossible task
trying to sell travelling accountant Bob (who, according to his colleague is
very good at covering his tracks – nudge, nudge) as just being a normal guy on
the level. And that’s before we learn of his preferences in reading material in
the garage... Stephen Lang periodically pops up from time to time squinting
menacingly in the distance as retired terminally-ill cop ‘Holt Ramsey’, whose
sole method of deduction seems to boil down to combining Bob and Darcy’s first
initials onto a scrawny piece of paper in order to find the identity of the
‘Beadie’ serial-killer. He does get to fulfil a more substantial purpose late
on though, in a pivotal scene where he ends up acting as some kind of impromptu
priest hearing confession and bestowing absolvement from his hospital bed.
Apart
from a couple of jolting dream sequences (clearly seized upon by the editor of
the trailer, no doubt grateful for being thrown a visual bone or two), the film
has the look and feel of a made-for-TV drama. The horrific nature of the crimes
is largely swept under the carpet, except for a couple of Googled crime scene
images, and could easily be screened at 9pm on any channel without a raised
eyebrow. I did like the fact that a potential victim is seen reading an
international bestselling novel entitled: ‘Bring me to my knees’ (both an awful
foreboding visual pun and perhaps also a dig at the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
phenomena.)
Stephen
King’s literary works have occasionally provided the catalyst for truly
memorable big screen conversions, but unlike say Kubrick’s take on the husband
as monster premise, A GOOD MARRIAGE is hardly a shining example.
**(out of 5)
Paul
Worts
