Movie Review - Stephen King's A Good Marriage

Stephen King's A Good Marriage (2014)

Starring Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia and Stephen Lang 

Directed by Peter Askin

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

No one will ever mistake Stephen King for one of America's best authors, but I certainly have enjoyed reading his works in the past.  Because of this, the use of the King's name in the title of Stephen King's A Good Marriage coupled with a starring role by Joan Allen had me thinking that there might be potential in this horror piece.  Unfortunately, the lack of even a theatrical release beyond a handful of theaters should've clued me in to the disappointment ahead.

Allen is Darcy Anderson, a loving housewife married to salesman Bob (Anthony LaPaglia).  Together, they have two grown children and a seemingly lovely life.  However, their small town in Maine has recently been under attack by an apparent serial killer intent on offing women, stealing their ID's, and then sending them to the police in a cheeky "You can't get me" fashion.  When Bob is away on a business trip, Darcy uncovers a stash of information that leads her to believe that Bob may be the murderer -- and, needless to say, their relationship finds itself on shaky ground.

Ultimately the film's downfall is that there's nary a suspenseful moment in it.  Thirty minutes in -- SPOILER ALERT (although it happens thirty minutes in so the film doesn't hide things for all that long) -- Bob admits to being the killer and from that point on all we get are scenes of Joan Allen unsure of how to react to her husband's "other life."  Perhaps aiming for more of a weird relationship "drama" than anything else, King's short novella upon which this film is based must have worked better on the page than in his own screenplay adaptation.  Here, it's a bit of a snoozefest.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-