Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Lovers Blu-ray Movie Review

Married With Child.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 28, 2017

Years ago my wife and I were on a double date of sorts with another married couple, and it turned out they were actually celebrating their anniversary, something they hadn’t previously disclosed to us. On the way home, the typically clueless husband asked his wife how many years they were celebrating, and his wife said, “Ten years of married bliss.” In an obviously joking riposte, the husband sighed and countered, “Wow, it seems like a lot more bliss than that.” It will perhaps not come as a complete surprise to divulge this couple later divorced. Anyone who has stayed married, and probably even most people who eventually decided to end their marriages, will admit (perhaps under duress) that a certain lethargy can creep into long lived relationships, and some married couples seek to avoid that creeping numbness by indulging in extramarital affairs. The Lovers posits a long married couple named Michael (Tracy Letts) and Mary (Debra Winger), both of whom have in fact reached out to “touch” partners other than their spouse. While both Michael and Mary would seem to be well beyond “let’s wait until the kids grow up” rationale in terms of divorcing each other, as evidenced by the fact that their son Joel (Tyler Ross) is already an adult, that is in fact one thing they tell their paramours, in a ruse that fools no one, least of all Joel. With two extramarital lovers nagging them to finally dissolve their marriage, and with their son due soon for a visit with his girlfriend Erin (Jessica Sula) in tow, The Lovers plays on its title’s implied ambiguity by suggesting that just when it seems a marriage is well and truly dead, resurrecting sparks can ignite the flames of passion and maybe even love.

The film begins with a scene between Michael and a woman named Lucy (Melora Walters), and without the aforementioned context it would be understandable to assume that the dysfunction being displayed is in fact between spouses, not the result of what appears to be a longstanding affair. Lucy is a ballet dancer and teacher, and, perhaps like a lot of performing artists, she’s a bit on the “dramatic” side (as Michael calls her, leading to a major meltdown). Meanwhile, Mary is seen outside her workplace with a writer named Robert (Aiden Gillen), and again the assumption might be that the two are married, or at least involved, with both arranging for a later assignation and telling each other they love each other. It’s only in the next scene, when Michael and Mary arrive back at their home that the actual situation is made relatively clear.

Michael and Mary have arrived at that place in their marriage where everything is rote. They still regularly call each other “honey”, but there’s no emotion behind their words, and both are seemingly addicted to the cellphones, where they can supposedly secretly text to their lovers. A lot of The Lovers actually plays out via phone calls, often where only one side of the conversation is heard, but it’s a credit to smart writing on the part of Azazel Jacobs (who also directed) that what’s going on is always abundantly clear.

With an impending visit from Joel in the offing, both Lucy and Robert urge Michael and Mary to finally throw caution to the wind and make the break they have both been promising for a long time. The married couple, however, seems indecisive, and sees the visit of their son as a reason not to rock the boat, at least not then. The first hour or so of the film plays out as a suburban cage match of sorts as both Michael and Mary engage in various conversations with their affair mates, but it’s interesting to note that the married couple rarely if ever engage in any meaningful conversation with each other. The film has a dry comedic sense underlying these foundational elements, but it would be a mistake to think of The Lovers as traditionally humorous, and in fact there’s a probably unavoidably melancholic aspect to a lot of the early going in the film.

In what is the one laugh out loud moment in The Lovers, Michael and Mary sleepily kiss each other one morning, perhaps thinking they’re still with their “actual” lovers, something that quickly leads to a completely unexpected morning of passion. That sets everyone’s emotional equilibrium (such as it is, anyway) spinning madly out of control, and both Lucy and Robert are suddenly confronted with the fact that the marriage may not dissolve, as hoped for.

By the time Joel and his girlfriend arrive, in the film’s last half hour, things are stretched to their breaking point, though Michael and Mary seems almost sanguine about the weird dichotomy between their rekindled passion and their continuing affairs. Two quick confrontations where the lovers show up unexpectedly (Robert with Michael and Lucy with Mary) perhaps finally amount to the straw breaking this particular camel’s back, leading to a huge outburst — from Joel. It’s here that the film perhaps makes one potentially fatal error, having Michael sit down at the piano and sing “It Must Be Love”, the old Labi Siffre tune from 1971 which was also utilized in The Tall Guy. It’s an odd decision that briefly turns the film into something akin to a music video, and while the song’s lyrical content is certainly a propos, the sequence might have been handled more artfully with a simple dialogue scene.

Despite an occasional misstep and some missed opportunities for supporting character development (what’s up with Mary’s work friend?), and also despite the fact that the basic plot is decidedly old hat, The Lovers is consistently refreshing, offering an actually bold and provocative take on a middle aged relationship. It is wonderful to see performers like Debra Winger who have allowed themselves to age naturally (and therefore gracefully, at least in my not so humble opinion), and the film’s emphasis on folks well past the typical target demographic age is a breath of fresh air, as well. Performances make this piece, and The Lovers is graced with a quartet of finely nuanced work from Winger, Letts, Gillen and Walters.

The Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Lovers is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.84:1. This film was "captured by Alexa", as a closing credit logo proclaims, and it has the typically excellent levels of detail this technology affords, despite a somewhat drab and tamped down palette that only really springs to life in a few isolated outdoor sequences. Much of the film takes place in interior locations, some of which aren't especially bright lit. The best indoor moments from a detail perspective are in the respective offices of Mary and Michael, where bright lighting conditions prevail. Some of the bedroom material is pretty murky looking, but some extreme close-ups help counter this. This isn't a showy film from a visual perspective by any stretch of the imagination, but this is a solid transfer of a workmanlike presentation and I doubt anyone will have any serious issues with its quality.

The Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Similarly to the video presentation, The Lovers' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is completely competent but will probably fail to overly inspire anyone to heights of fervor. Several outdoor sequences offer decent detailing of ambient environmental effects, and the film's score regularly wafts through the surround channels, but otherwise this film relies almost entirely on "two hander" scenes where dialogue is prevalent and there simply isn't that much potential for amazing immersion. Fidelity is fine throughout this presentation, with no problems of any kind to report.

The Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Azazel Jacobs


• The Music of Romance: Scoring The Lovers (1080p; 13:51) profiles composer Mandy Hoffman and writer/director Azazel Jacobs (who states he's never used a live orchestra before), as well as the Seattle recording locations.


• A Complicated Passion: Making The Lovers (1080p; 19:23) hews to a pretty standard EPK format but has some good interview snippets with the principal cast and crew, as well as some fun behind the scenes footage.

The Lovers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Lovers has a few stumbles along the way, including the weirdly melodramatic meltdown for Joel late in the film, but overall it's a very smartly written and extremely well performed piece that tackles a well worn subject matter from an invitingly unique perspective. It's also commendable to see a film not resolutely centered on the under 30 crowd. Technical merits are strong if inherently not producing much "wow" factor, and The Lovers comes Recommended.