We Don´t Live Here Anymore

Colour, 35 mm
USA, Canada, 2003, 101 min
Section: Sundance at Karlovy Vary

Synopsis

An intimate drama based on two stories by Andre Dubus (author of the story behind the film In the Bedroom) which describes two married couples on an irreversible path to a crisis point. Best friends Jack (Mark Ruffalo) and Hank (Peter Krause) teach at a small university somewhere in the American Northwest. Their wives Terry (Laura Dern) and Edith (Naomi Watts) take care of the children and the household. As Jack becomes more and more absorbed in his love affair with Edith, the cool and seemingly unsuspecting Hank is interested only in his budding career as a writer. This Bergmanesque study of the selfish desires and inner needs of four thirty-somethings captivates with its combination of brilliant screenplay and outstanding acting performances. Mark Ruffalo in particular (In the Cut, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) is impeccable in his portrayal of the somewhat self-adoring, bashful, and boyish charmer, who is as intensively capable of suffering as he is of tormenting.

About the director

John Curran (New York), after studying at university in Syracuse, worked as an illustrator and designer in New York. In 1986 he moved to Sydney, where he worked for the renowned advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather. In 1990 he founded the Pod Film company and began directing commercials, music videos, and short films (award-winning Down Rusty Down among them). Curran’s feature film debut, Praise (1998), won the FIPRESCI award at the Toronto festival and was listed by the New York Times as one of the ten best movies of the year. This September sees the premiere of his latest film The Painted Veil, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.