MARRIED TO IT. Dlrected by Arthur Hiller; written by Janet Kovalcik; produced by Thomas Baer for Orion. Starring Beau Bridges, Stockard Channing, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Cybill Shepherd and Ron Silver. Rated R.
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Married to It is a pleasant little flick; good for an afternoon's or evening's entertainment, but don't expect it to stick to your ribs for long.
An ensemble picture along the lines of The Big Chill (although not nearly in that league), its stars are mostly appealing and its story is amusing and touching in just about the right amounts. The characters are distressingly shallow, however, and their interactions are, for the most part, contrived, predictable and stilted.
Once you get past the biggest contrivance, however, which is how they make an ensemble in the first place, the acting is skillful enough to provide the aforementioned entertainment.
The six stars form three couples with a connection to a New York City private school. The Mordens (Bridges and Channing) are ex-hippies who struggle on civil servant salaries to keep their two boys in the school. Claire (Shepherd), a wealthy banker and Leo (Silver), a toy manufacturer, have a daughter/stepdaughter there. And Nina Bishop (Masterson) is the new school psychologist (her husband Chuck (Leonard) is a stockbroker).
A group less likely to bond could not easily be found. But the fact that they do is easier to swallow than you might think. The Bishops are sweet enough, the Mordens are appealingly rumply enough, and Leo is edgily interesting enough, that we want to believe in their friendship.
Shepherd is the odd one out, with a character that is considerably less sympathetic than any of the others. And her vocabulary (which almost single-handedly earns the R rating) runs counter to the generally good-natured tone the others usually take.
But even Claire can grow on you, if you let her, as the story progresses. And she is responsible for a satisfying, if corny and predictable, final scene.
April 7, 1993