After 25 years of being married to a man who seems like a good provider with a stable (albeit sometimes dull) personality, Darcy Anderson (Joan Allen) comes across evidence in their garage that leads her to suspect that her husband (Anthony LaPaglia) might be the serial killer known as Beadie. When he comes home from a business trip, he admits that he is indeed Beadie and suggests that maybe it would be best for everyone if she just moved on from it. He promises not to kill anyone else and she promises not to go to the police. She has something else in mind.

A Good Marriage benefits from an interesting premise, but it suffers from a dull presentation. I think the film’s director was trying to drive home the idea of the Andersons just seeming like an everyday couple by taking a non-flashy approach to the story, but the end result is pretty boring, and Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia aren’t convincing as a long-time married couple even before the husband’s hobbies are revealed. Stephen King wrote the screenplay, adapting his own novella, but King’s dialogue can sometimes sound stiff when people have to actually recite it out loud. After the fourth or tenth awkward, middle class conversation, I was on the verge of begging for something interesting to actually happen. The movie could have jettisoned all of the stuff about the husband’s childhood friend without losing much.

Back when she was still doing movie, Joan Allen cornered the market on frustrated housewife roles and maybe that’s why she only seemed to be going through the motions here. Anthony LaPaglia also seems bored with his character and never make us believe anyone would ignore years of compulsive homicide to stay with him. Only Stephen Lang really makes an impression, playing a detective who feels like a convenient case of dues ex machina. This movie could have used some Langoliers.