Posted: 08/20/2004

We Don’t Live Here Anymore

(2004)

by Erin Paulson

In We Don’t Live Here Anymore (directed by John Curran), two couples that happen to be the best of friends learn the hard way that adultery is never a good idea, and particularly not when its with your best friends spouse. The story is actually quite realistic, and the premise eternally interesting (somehow everyone always wants to see films about immorality and the destruction of marriage), but somehow it isn’t enough.

Despite the fact that I have always appreciated small-casted, character-based films, I did not care for this one. Its not that there is anything that objectionable about the way it was executed, or the acting, or the screenplay. I suppose that everything was done well, as I can’t specify anything in particular that was wrong with the film. It was decent, but I suppose that therein lays the problem. It was decent, not spectacular. There is no aspect of it that I found inspiring or above average, not even technically. I didn’t detest or love the film, and afterwards I was neither severely depressed nor incredibly elated. In fact, We Don’t Live Here Anymore instigated no passion in me at all, one way or the other. And that reason is precisely why I wouldn’t recommend this film.

Although all of the four lead actors (Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Mark Ruffalo, and Naomi Watts) acted with the kind of dramatic realism that is often celebrated at awards shows, I was still left empty. Perhaps one of the reasons this film didn’t affect me is that we never get to know the characters before the conflicts begin. From almost the first shot, the affair between Jack (Ruffalo) and Edith (Watts) begins, and since we have no concept of what their marriages are actually like, we have no opinion of their indiscretion, nor can we feel compassion or understanding at their choices. I quickly discovered that it didn’t matter to me if Terry (Dern) and Hank (Krause) discovered their spouse’s affair, and I didnt particularly want to wait for the inevitable to happen.

Regardless of the films many disappointments, I didn’t feel as though I wasted my time seeing it. Its probably worth a viewing if only for the strong performances, but believe me when I say that you wont lose any sleep if you miss seeing it in theatres. The rental shelf at Blockbuster is a far more appropriate place from which to view it, if you can care enough to be bothered.

Erin Paulson is a film reviewer for Film Monthly and a photographer and cinematographer in Chicago.

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