Like a suspense-laced companion piece to the currently playing period romantic comedy "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," screenwriter/director Ira Sachs’s adaptation of John Bingham's novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" puts a lustful edge to 1949 Americana.
Patricia Clarkson and Chris Cooper are Pat and Harry, the well-off wedded couple of the film’s nondescript title.
Harry is bored with Pat’s hypersexual nature, but not the forbidden fruit of his mistress Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams), who catches the eye of Harry’s best friend Richard, played by the ever-suave Pierce Brosnan.
Richard works the angles toward stealing Kay, while Harry hatches a plan to poison Pat so that he and Kay can start a life together.
There’s gentle satire here, to go along with suspense and sexual intrigue, but the tone of the piece stays too melodramatic to hit its potential to resonate.
Every actor pours on his or her best, in a tempered showcase movie that’s worth seeing.
Rated PG-13. 90 mins.
