We Don't Live Here Anymore Movie Review:


Centered on two lustful wedded couples and the fragileness of relationships, We Don’t Live Here Anymore is saved by contrite acting and a stellar third act, despite its erratic muddiness.

Infidelity is a subject that is difficult to transpire across to most movie-going audiences. Director John Curran does not shy away at all, in which audiences will not agree with each character’s actions, but We Don’t Live Here Anymore in fact has rounded characters, which maintains interest.

The subject matter of infidelity has been the centerpiece for some excellent films, such as Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm and the 80’s thriller Fatal Attraction. A few years ago, Unfaithful tackled the subject, but though flawed was watchable due mostly to the striking performance by Diane Lane. Adultery has also been use irrationally in the past, such as in Neil Labute’s vastly overrated Your Friends & Neighbors.

Set in a small community of Oregon, Jack (Mark Ruffalo) and Terry (Laura Dern) Linden are best friends with Hank (Peter Krause) and Edith (Naomi Watts) Evans. Jack and Hank both teach at a nearby university, in which Hank is a rich author that is constantly dreading the development of his next story. Terry and Edith are housewives that are polar opposites. Terry is lazy, likes to drink, and never cleans anything, even when her young son wets the bed. On the other hand, Edith’s home is spotless, without a single ounce of dust to be found. Both marriages are not the best, Terry and Jack constantly argue while pushing each other’s buttons, mostly over both of their problems. Edith is unhappy, but not revealing to Hank, as he devours himself into his work and occasional infidelities, which he does not shy away from revealing to Jack. Answering to her need of comfort and his desire for release, Jack and Edith occasionally sneak out and sleep with one another, whether it is in the nearby woods or the front seat of their cars. Hank also continues to make passes at Terry, though she knows his nature, a part of her still finds him nurturing. Jack precludes to putting her into situations, where he knows that Hank will approach for her. Constant arguing and bickering ensues, and the characters are left with decisions to make of either destroying or saving their marriages.

Numerous times during its progression, this film feels foggy or disjointed. There are times that Jack and Terry argue, throw things at one another, and then they just makeup quickly or it takes a day or so for them to talk. Curran and screenwriter Larry Gross also implement Jack’s thinking voice over through most of the film, but then it is all but forgotten during the final thirty minutes. Curran numerously fades to black for transitions, to where it seems that he is closing the book on the film, rather than changing chapters. Gross won the screenwriting award for his script at Sundance in January, in which this film has very complicated characters and a very competent third act, though it takes its time to get to it. The subject matter is not the easiest to tell, but Gross patiently lets all four of these characters reveal themselves to you. Though they are miserable beings, they are still human beings that one can pick out from everyday life. Gross adapted the script from a short story by Andre Dubus, who also wrote the original story for In the Bedroom. Though the final third of this film picks up, the overall film still feels not totally connected.

The acting cast is a combination of admirable actors doing terrific work in each of their performances. Mark Ruffalo rebounds from being just cute in 13 Going on 30 to turning in an emotionally intricate performance as Jack. In one of her best performances, Laura Dern is nearly combustible as Jack’s up and down wife Terry. Peter Krause is also effective as the selfish writer Hank, who grows more and more despicable as the film moves on. Maybe as the film’s most tortured character, Naomi Watts continues her streak of credible and stunning work as Edith.

We Don’t Live Here Anymore delivers a troubling look into everyday relationships through heartache and mending. Though the film finally delivers in the last half-hour in a pretty commendable script by Larry Gross and an adequate acting straight across the board, the film still misses on connecting all of its dots in terms of consistency and structural choices.

Grade: C+

Bailey Henderson

Based on two stories by Andre Dubus (House of Sand and Fog), this relationship drama is so packed with serious themes that it's almost unbearable! Brilliant acting and perceptive writing makes it worth sticking with, but this is extremely intense filmmaking.

Mark and Terry (Ruffalo and Dern) have two precocious kids (Charles and Page) and a chaotic life that's always on the edge of financial ruin. Their best friends Hank and Edith (Krause and Watts), on the other hand, with their bright daughter (Bishop), are outwardly serene and ordered. But Hank's casual infidelities spur Edith to look for love from Mark, who quickly obliges. The affair causes all sorts of fallout, including an escalation of flirtation between Terry and Hank, and a deep examination of the meaning of love for each of these people.

Writer-director Curran examines virtually every conceivable angle at this stage in a relationship: the fine line between love and hate, making love versus having sex, the need to love and feel loved, the difference in loving someone for what they do or who they are, and the fact that there are things we simply refuse to talk about. Not only is this very strong stuff, but the film is fairly relentless in its approach, giving us only tiny glimpses of natural life humour but not nearly enough to lighten the load.

Ruffalo, Dern, Watts and Krause are wonderful, providing moments of transparency and insight that bring out the film's themes. These people approach the situation in four very different ways, so it's fairly easy to identify with at least one of them. And the writing and acting are daring enough to avoid letting one person win the sympathy vote. Like the filmmaking style, the performances are both warm and rhythmic in the shifting liaisons. And they're also far too serious and heavy--relying more on anger, bitterness and paranoia, with only a flicker of commitment, compassion and regret. These are complex people who are deeply flawed but also capable of moments of everyday heroism. And perhaps the film's biggest strength is that Curran and his cast never offer us an easy way out.

Rich Cline

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