We Don't Live Here Anymore is one of those very frank and sobering examinations of marital disjunction that are not much of a pleasure to watch. Director John Curran skillfully leads this first rate cast through this tunnel of love and lust using space and silence to do much of the talking. As you might expect the two couples Mark Ruffalo and Laura Dern juxtaposed with Peter Krause and Naomi Watts are not happy campers - at this point going through the motions while they balm their pain with doomed adulteries. Ruffalo and Watts are engaged in a passionate affair, but their respective worlds are disintegrating. Curran is wise to show us this decline reflected in the eyes of their young children.

We Don't Live Here Anymore is a tough watch, made enjoyable by sensitive performances all around (particularly by the child actors) and a lean and mean script that doesn't pull punches, but doesn't wallow in despair or pity to a fault. Nor does the film deign to judge, it merely drops us in to observe and as voyeurs we watch this mess develop and come to it's very well observed resolution.

Again the films deep and subtle truths show through in scenes where one of the adults spends time with their children, who are more aware of what's going on than any of the grown-ups. One of the fathers tells his kids: "You know what guys? People fight. Especially married people." The film isn't perfect (there are some fairly stilted battle scenes between Ruffalo and Dern) mostly the fault of over-writing - but overall this is well-conceived and executed marital study that resonates best in it's silences.