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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), English, French, Spanish Subtitled
Jack and Terry. Hank and Edith. They're married couples and best friends with much in common. Jack and Hank are professors at Cedar County College. Terry and Edith are stay-at-home moms. And Jack and Edith are secret lovers. Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause and Naomi Watts play the interlocked foursome, pushing their characters into uncharted realms of anger, confrontation and lust - and making decisions that may or may not let love slip away.
"The acting is fervent, and the insights cut deep." Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"...wry and delicate and absorbing." Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Editor's Note
Jack Linden (Mark Ruffalo) and Hank Evans (Peter Krause) are best friends who both teach at the same university in a small New England town. They both are married and have young children, and Jack's wife, Terry (Laura Dern), is close with Hank's wife, Edith (Naomi Watts). But while things appear happy on the surface, there are smoldering pockets of discontent underneath. Financial struggle and domestic boredom has drained the passion from Jack and Terry's marriage, while Hank's numerous infidelities and self-absorption has prompted Edith to find both comfort and sexual fulfillment with Jack. As Jack begins spending more and more time with Edith, it becomes obvious to Terry, whose anger culminates in a sexual encounter with Hank. Now that the deception has come full circle, both couples are left to decide the futures of their shattered unions. With a screenplay that incorporates "We Don't Live Here Anymore" and "Adultery," two short stories by Andre Dubus (IN THE BEDROOM), John Curran's film appears deceptively simple. While it's a garden-variety tale of suburban ennui and infidelity on the surface, it is brought to multi-layered life with a quartet of elegantly nuanced performances that fit together like the interlocking pieces of a puzzle. Plot is almost secondary to the emotional sparks that Ruffalo, Dern, Krause, and Watts give off, expertly and in equal measure.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital 5.1 | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 9/27/2005 |
| Running Time: 99 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2004 | | Catalog ID: 38966 | | UPC: 00085393896621 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French, Quebecois Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Sundance Film Festival (2004) |  | Larry Gross, Winner, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award | | | John Curran, Nominee, Grand Jury Prize |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"[T]he film is at times harrowing to watch, yet it's also wry and delicate and absorbing. It's infused with the messy excitement of imperfect passion." 08/20/2004 p.102Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[Dern] brings startling anger and anguish to her portrayal of a wronged wife." 07/01/2004 p.86-7 Rolling Stone
"[L]iterate, erotic, brutally funny and touched by brilliance in its quartet of live-wire performances....Don't discount this film's power -- it doesn't sizzle, it stings." 09/02/2004 p.150 New York Times
"[T]horoughly intelligent..." 08/13/2004 p.E1 Los Angeles Times
"[A]ffecting and sincere in the best sense..." 08/13/2004 p.E1 USA Today
"A revelation." New Yorker
"Easily the best American movie so far this year" Premiere
"Good acting distinguishes this supple drama..." 03/01/2005 p.111 Uncut
"[T]his maintains its temperature to the final knock-out blows, shattering sureties. A fearless, uncommonly truthful film." 05/01/2005 p.135 Hollywood Reporter 9 of 10
Director John Curran has masterfully managed to convey flesh and blood within the permutations of th - Duane Byrge
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
The film's problem is that it's too desultory. Maybe the point of the Dubus stories was to show perf - Roger Ebert
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