Who's in It: Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams
The Basics: In the early 1950s, a straight-arrow married man falls in love with another woman. Rather than break his wife's heart, he decides to kill her. Meanwhile, his best friend is a playboy who also wants the married man's mistress. Meanwhile, the long-suffering wife may not be as long-suffering as her husband believes …
What's the Deal? This at-times dull movie wants to be all things to all people. It seems to think it's a modern look at stock characters who all turn out to be more than we expect (for example, the cad is really nice and the salary man is a wannabe murderer, the wife is a sex-obsessed cougar and the other woman is a wholesome widow), and it also flirts with being a noir, a suspenseful melodrama and a dark comedy. It doesn't juggle its genres well enough and never gets as deep as it thinks it's getting, but it sure looks good.
How It's Like Far From Heaven: Same co-writer; same attention to exacting period detail (minus some oddly non-time-specific men's hairstyles); the presence of Patricia Clarkson.
How It's Not Like Far From Heaven: Goes for intentional laughs; relies less on characters who evolve naturally in favor of puppeteering them to fit the plot's twists and turns; never transcends its form(s) to give the audience the kind of commentary it promises.
Who's Worth Seeing It for Anyway, Even Though It's All Surfaces: Pierce Brosnan and Patricia Clarkson seem to be having a good time and give the movie most of its humor, especially Brosnan, who can make you laugh just by looking put out and irritated.