A Good Marriage (2014) Reviews

• Like Cliff's Notes

  amandamarie-12014-10-04

  This movie was not garbage but, it is probably worth skipping or waiting for Netflix. You know when someone tells you a story about something crazy that happened to them and they hit the high points to get to the point and, in the end it doesn't sound that exciting at all? Sure, you nod along because you see how that could be hard or they should be upset but you feel you missed something along the way. This movie hit the high points. The emotion didn't transfer. The story makes sense. The acting is decent and the story plays out the way the trailer leads you to believe it would. There are a few moments of confusion when Darcy (Joan Allen) starts to imagine what would happen if this secret were exposed but, in the end you figure what was and what wasn't and, just generally leave with a feeling of, okay well, it is what it is.

• Quite good adaptation of the Novella

  billsorensen382014-10-06

  i was surprised by all the negative reviews. But that may have to do with the name Stephen King and expectations that it will be a horror thriller. It's not. It's more a domestic drama with dark undertones, just like the novella he wrote. The acting was spot on. Joan Allen was perfect. So although it may not be worth paying to see in the theater, it's quite an interesting well made drama that can be enjoyed on the small screen at home. I agree with one reviewer who compared it to a well made Lifetime movie. But I like some Lifetime movies. So give it a try if you like those as well. But stay away if you are seeking out a blood soaked thriller.

• Stephen King once again proves that reality is the most terrifying thing of all.

  cosmo_tiger2014-11-16

  "She knew nothing." Darcy (Allen) and Bob (LaPaglia) have been married for 25 years and are extremely happy. When Bob is gone on business Darcy begins looking around for her stashes of chocolate. What she finds is the missing ID for a woman that was recently killed by a serial killer. Coming to grips with the fact that her perfect husband is an evil being she isn't sure how to react. The reason that Stephen King is known as the master of horror is because the things he writes about are realistic enough for you to think… this could happen to me. This movie is no exception. An ordinary loving couple that seem perfect at first but then a dangerous secret is discovered and everything changes. There is not a crazed killer in a mask attacking people at random, nor are there people being dismembered just for effect. This one is terrifying because the killer could be someone you know and if that's the case how would you deal with it. Especially knowing that if you are married to a serial killer will the police really believe you had no idea what was going on? Like any good King story this one keeps on on edge and you aren't sure if what you are seeing is real or imagined. The only real downside to this is that it had the feel of a made for TV movie. Other than that I have to say this is worth seeing. Overall, Stephen King once again proves that reality is the most terrifying thing of all. I give this a B+.

• A Good Marriage

  Argemaluco2015-02-14

  Even though author Stephen King's name is frequently used as a marketing tool, it might be damaging in the case of the film A Good Marriage, because the reference to the "Master of Horror" creates very different expectations to what this movie offers. To start with, A Good Marriage isn't a horror film, but a boring thriller lacking of energy, suspense or atmosphere, and with weak performances from Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia. The main problem of A Good Marriage is that it needed more... something. Whatever it could be. More atmosphere, more suspense, more twists. Anything to make it even remotely interesting. To be fair, I haven't read the short story on which A Good Marriage is based, so I can't determine whether the problem comes "of origin", or whether the film couldn't find the proper angle to adapt the story in a more attractive way. But, well... I used to be a fan of King's in previous decades, and I know that his prose is particularly difficult to be translated to cinema, because his characteristic literary "voice" is the first thing to be eliminated when writing a screenplay, something which leaves us with a distillation of characters and concepts which aren't always enough to support a film, unless the movie counts with the necessary ingredients (style, atmosphere, performances) to compensate those things which were lost during the transition. Unfortunately, A Good Marriage couldn't fulfill with those conditions, and I can't recommend it.

• I don't understand why so many low reviews

  michaelthom-720842018-09-09

  I read the story before I saw the movie and although there were some changes to the script that I thought were not improvements, I was still surprised to see the film was enjoyable and was a great psychological exploration of what a woman in that horrible dilemma might go through. The story is not about the horrors of serial killers or the supernatural horrors one might expect from King but its about the emotional horror of choosing to live with a secret of unimaginable bearing. I think that the reason many people think this is boring is because that idea went right over their heads. Watch the film amd read the story. Both are great!