NEW YORK, Sept.

By MARK SHECHNER Past efforts to translate Philip Roth's books into film have produced one dog after another. They include Larry Peerce's "Goodbye Columbus" (1969), Ernest Lehman's gagfest "Portnoy's Complaint" (1972) and Robert Benton's dreary "The Human Stain" (2003).

By Mal Vincent, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Jun. 14--With a mischievous nod toward the slyer nature of Alfred Hitchcock, "Married Life" is, on one level, about two men obsessed with one woman. On another, it's about killing someone with kindness.

By Desson Thomson Patricia Clarkson once lamented that she never got leading roles because she wasn't "girlish" or "sexy" enough. Yet she has evolved into something better, an actress known for consistently spunky roles, often set in postwar or contemporary times.

By McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE A repeated line in "Married Life" is the adage that one person can't build his happiness on another's unhappiness. But this sardonic cocktail of adultery, double-crosses, seduction and murder plots goes on to prove that not only can one do it, it's almost mandatory.