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We Don't Live Here Anymore
Warner Independent Pictures


6.8

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 16 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for sexual content and language

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts, Sam Charles, Haili Page, Jennifer Bishop, Jim Francis, and Amber Rothwell

Two couples must sift through the layers of betrayal and self-deception to face their marriages, each other, and ultimately, themselves. (Warner Independent Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Larry Gross Andre Dubus (short stories We Don't Live Here Anymore and Adultery)
DIRECTED BY:	John Curran
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 14, 2004 Video: December 14, 2004 Theatrical: August 13, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	101 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The film is at times harrowing to watch, yet it's also wry and delicate and absorbing. It's infused with the messy excitement of imperfect passion.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

It is worthy of comparison to the lifelike, character-rich films we cherish from that era (1970s), and is certainly one of the finest films to come out this year.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Naomi Watts is a tremendous movie actress. She need only sidle on camera and glance over the terrain to claim the scene. What's her secret? Like the great Isabelle Huppert, Watts doesn't radiate feelings so much as she absorbs them.

The New Yorker David Denby

Easily the best American movie so far this year.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A revelation. One rarely sees American-made movies that are so unafraid to explore emotional cruelty and portray the consequences without positing easy answers or attaching happy endings.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

Director John Curran has masterfully managed to convey flesh and blood within the permutations of the sometimes clinical story. Enhancing the people-next-door nature of this saga were the film's smart technical contributions.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Compassionate though it is, this is not a movie that offers much in the way of solace. It insists that there is no end to human weakness, and not much cure for it either. That's pretty strong stuff.

Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli

Set ablaze by a startling performance by Laura Dern, it's a stark, often disturbing look at the ramifications of betrayal.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

A sense of unease, of incompleteness, is, I think, the appropriate response to this movie. Instead of trying to fill in the blanks, Curran and Gross leave things open and ambiguous. Just like life.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The film was directed by John Curran who here does fine, close, and intimate "chamber" work. The cinematography by Maryse Alberti is of the most desirable kind: it creates mood and drama without ever being ostentatious about it. But it is the acting that truly realizes the film.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The movie may leave its audience feeling a little battered (some might say betrayed) as well. Still, the film's honesty, along with its refusal to pander to Hollywood happy endings, is well worth the beating.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Usually American marital problems are left to the soap operas; it's nice to see them tackled by experts, piercing personas and peeling open hearts.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

All four performances are strong and nuanced, which makes the film oddly compelling. At the same time, all four characters are hard to like, difficult to care about. They're like car-crash victims in a demolition derby of narcissism and lies.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A movie for adults, of a kind that usually isn't made in America,

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Not a deep movie. It is a very honest one, though - there's not a cheap cinematic trick in sight - and it's a graceful one, energizing its small-town story with eloquent camera work and ingenious musical touches.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film, sometimes talky and overemphatic, is also literate, erotic, brutally funny and touched by brilliance in its quartet of live-wire performances.

Portland Oregonian Karen Karbo

An absorbing relational Rorschach test masquerading as a domestic drama, a sardonic examination of marriage and friendship that invites the audience to think for itself.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Tony literary material, a fine cast and intelligent script and direction.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In Curran's hands, what might have seemed like a "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" redux gets cut into avant-garde pieces, with experimental inserts, sound effects, and wrinkles in time that add to an uneasy mood.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Affecting and sincere in the best sense, which makes up for the whiff of anachronism and the creakiness of some of the big metaphoric moments.

Slate David Edelstein

This is not a movie to see if you're contemplating tying the knot; it's a hard slog for those of us already entwined.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A pretty spot-on distillation of human weakness, but my god, must they all be so inhumane in the process?

New York Post Lou Lumenick

At heart a rather chilly and clinical portrait of four very selfish people.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Though the violence in this film never becomes physical, the psychic wounds these people inflict on one another cut so deeply you wish it would. It's a grueling experience.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Well-acted drama.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The actors are better than the material.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

You get the sense that the cheap thrill of cheating is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken bone. The movie feels just as inadequate emotionally and psychologically. There's a lot of outward behavior but no inner life.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

What you're smelling is Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" without the pathos and the punch, or John Updike's "Rabbit Redux" minus the insight and the style.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Like the bad fight that ends the bad marriage: ugly, messy, loud, sometimes incoherent, but ultimately necessary. You're glad when either of them -- the marriage or the movie -- is over.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

What it lacks is the wit or even the cynicism to lighten the emotional load.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The rest of us can pass this by, unless we're such fans of the actors - Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Watts, Laura Dern and Peter Krause - that we'd watch them in anything.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It is almost completely devoid of any trace of humor. It radiates a luxurious, all-encompassing mopeyness.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

There's no character to root for in this movie, no potential triumphs or resounding failures, just the sense of people going through the motions because they can't bother to think of anything better to do. And that's not a lot to hang your moviegoing hat on.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

With We Don't Live Here Anymore, it's the audience that may want to leave and start a new life.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

May be very much about feelings, but it's made with a drab, juiceless, tasteful efficiency that distances us from the characters instead of drawing us closer to them.

Dallas Observer Melissa Levine

An hour of dour stagnation is a lot to take, even with good acting. So when the action finally does shift, toward the end of the film, it is a welcome relief.

Empire Anna Smith

If you're looking for a film to put you off marriage, children, affairs, and indeed life itself, look no further than this melancholic ensemble piece about listless adulterous couples in small-town New England.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Catherine P. gave it a9:
Thoroughly entertaining film. Excellent acting and script. I loved the photography and the moody soundtrack. The characters were well drawn and believable.

Zebob Mojo gave it a 6:
A decent story but like all the reviews say, the actors are good but the writing is weak. The dialogue sounds like a writer's idea of dialogue. Motivations are never fully explained and in fact one wonders why any woman would marry the two outrageous jerks in this film.

Marc K. gave it a 5:
Had it's interesting moments, but nothing special. It's also very hard when all the characters are unlikeable, although Dern is probably the least unlikeable.

Niki M gave it a 5:
I'm not sure if I loved it or hated it, but I can honestly say I'm thoroughly depressed after seeing this movie.

Mike M gave it an 8:
Good movie. Like real people, motivations are sometimes subtle but understood if you really listen. Ruffalo is a frustrated "reader not a writer." Watts is a spoiled rich girl, used to getting not taking. Might Dern be manic depressive? Great acting by all, but Dern and possibly Krause are too old. These people are 30, not 40. Great job on casting the kids; totally believable that Ruffalo would stay in the marriage in large part for his children. What a great, old-fashioned theme for a comtemporary picture about unhappy, self-centered adults.

Chad S. gave it a 3:
On a metaphysical level, "We Don't Live Here Anymore" works. Jack (Mark Ruffalo) is the narrator, as "We Don't Live Here Anymore" plays like a mounting of his forthcoming book that details the events of the ongoing disintegration of two marriages and friendships between the disenfranchised spouses detailed in this insufferable adaptation of Andrew Dubus (or Jack Linden's) short stories. Jack will win the footrace (a recurring motif) with Hank (Peter Krause), a published poet, who's previous attempts at a novel, ends up on a grill. But "We Don't Live Here Anymore" feels emotionally overwrought. This film is based on Jack's material so when he experiences a change of heart, we judge him as a dishonest writer, because all of his actions suggest that he loves Edith (Naomi Watts). To me, it seems inconceivable that he has any feelings left for Terry (Laura Dern).

Edwin M. gave it a 4:
Countless classic films and novels treat of adultery, and do it well because characters are presented in a way to engage the viewer's emotions. Character and motivation are very shallow in this film, yet technical elements like photography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound are handled very well, and acting is good. The suggestion that casual neglect justifies casual adultery in all 4 protagonists is not convincing, in a literary sense. Too many reviewers only discuss the "message" and don't analyze the elements.

We Don't Live Here Anymore Warner Independent Pictures

We Don't Live Here Anymore
Warner Independent Pictures