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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully observed drama of adultery and love, 16 Feb 2006
This is my favourite plot, two married couples developing cross relationships.On the one hand we have Jack (Ruffalo) and Terry Linden (Dern), financially constrained and with a deep underlying togetherness that seems separate to their marriage. In the interviews on the DVD Dern looks the right age to be Ruffalo’s wife, but in the film it seems she has been deliberately photographed to look older, which seems to accentuate her vulnerability, desperation and feelings of alienation as she slowly becomes aware of her husbands infidelity. On the other hand are the Linden’s best friends Hank (Krause) and Edith Evans (Watts), less deeply committed to each other than their friends the Lindens, and with Hank emotionally involved and frustrated in trying to get his novel and poems published. The dialogue is absolutely superb, natural and incisive and always at the service of the drama, these are real people, they live, we know them. Also the scenes with their children are beautifully observed, sometimes clearly showing the adult absorbed in one thing and the child in another. The acting by all four principals is as fine as you are likely to encounter, and the chemistry in all directions is absolutely right. Welcome digressions into some nice countryside, very fine responsive music, and direction that is so good it doesn’t seem to exist, this film appears real life not a drama.
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