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)

As I promised in my Sweeney Todd trailer review, I’m going to tell you to go see Mamma Mia! this summer. I’ve seen it on Broadway (at the request of my ABBA-loving mother) and can sum up the show in a few brief words: cheesy, unsubstantial, and bloody good fun.

The story is as flimsy as tissue paper: Girl wants her dad to attend her upcoming wedding, but she doesn’t know who he is. She finds three possibilities by digging into her mother’s sordid past, and invites them all to the wedding. They all show up, mom gets flustered, girl attempts to find out which one is her dad, lots of silly singing and dancing ensues.

But as most Mamma Mia! fans will tell you, the story doesn’t matter, it’s all about the music. The show was constructed around the tunes of everyone’s favorite 70’s Swedish pop group, ABBA (if you can’t at least admit that “Dancing Queen” is a catchy tune, you may have no soul). And in trying to create a show around preexisting songs, some (OK, a lot) of artistic license is taken with the storyline.

While the stage show is certainly entertaining, I’m somewhat concerned about how well it’ll translate to film. What makes the stage show so entertaining is the fact that it’s all live; you feel like you’re at an ABBA cover band concert. Audience members can even sing along and dance in the aisles at the end of the show. So how well will this translate to the screen, where you’re supposed to sit in the dark, quietly, and watch actors who are unable to feed off the audience’s energy? I don’t know, but I’ll be at the theaters to SEE IT opening weekend and find out.

Mamma Mia! is not yet rated and opens July 18. (IMDB page)