It’s hard to believe, but there was a time (not that long ago) when divorce wasn’t the result of more than half of all marriages. Sure, people were still married to partners they couldn’t stand, still cheating, still abusing their spouses, and still generally miserable together, but they stayed together and bore the unhappiness. Because divorce wasn’t an option. It was a scandal and a humiliation, which seems crazy now, in a time when being sent to rehab is a status symbol. But there was a time when people would rather die than go through the disgrace of getting a divorce.

Or at least they’d rather just have their partner die.

In Married Life, set in the 1940’s, Chris Cooper is married to Patricia Clarkson, and having an affair with the much younger Rachel McAdams. I’m not sure in what universe Chris Cooper could get both Patricia Clarkson and Rachel McAdams, but whatever. When he decides to leave his wife for his mistress, he figures it’d be better to have her killed than humiliate her with a divorce. Enter Pierce Brosnan as the man to do Cooper’s dirty work…if he can keep his own hands off of McAdams, of course.

Married Life looks like it could be entertaining and darkly funny, plus I’m a fan of the four main players, so I’ll RENT IT when it’s out on DVD. And afterwards, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief that my father was decent enough to simply divorce my mother, rather than having her “taken care of”.

Married Life is rated PG-13 and opens in limited release March 7. (Official site)