One Mom's Review - Stephen King's: A Good Marriage

Stephen King, a scary man, wrote a pretty run of the mill story, or at least I can assume that from this movie because you see I don't read Stephen King books since they terrify me. Truly I can have a nightmare about a Sharpie marker and a paper plate. Thus, for years I have tread a wide path around Stephen King. During six month phase of being able to watch horror films I did watch Cujo, Carrie, and maybe a few others that I have gratefully forgotten.

So the movie... It was very boring and filmed like a "B" movie, but I actually liked it. It had a great story line that in the end I found believable. The premise is that a middle age couple has had the perfect marriage, including two successful now adult children, one boy and one girl. The unseen problem lies with the husband's extracurricular activity of being a serial killer. The wife finds his "tokens" and he figures out that she knows. She doesn't turn in him to the police because it would crush her children and their reputations. In the end she gets him to trust her, he believes that she has given him a second chance, and then she appropriately kills the Bastard.

I loved the ending. Throughout his demented hold over her the viewer is really led to believe that she has in essence forgiven him, and as the viewer I couldn't understand why she would do that. How she could live with him. And then, yes, she kills him.  There is this policeman that is lurking in the background of the story line which is okay, but not really a meaningful part of the movie, at least it doesn't interfere with it. Great acting on the part of Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia. Not a movie for children but it is a good movie for a slow night.