Stephen King’s A Good Marriage is a 2014 serial killer film with a big twist.
7 out of 10 stars. I loved it.
As the film opens, a serial killer named Beadie abducts, rapes, and murders yet another young woman. Then we see Darcy and Bob celebrating their 25th anniversary. They’re very happy. Bob is an accountant and collects coins, so he quite often spends the weekends going to coin dealers looking for rare coins. On the most recent trip, Darcy is looking for something in the garage and comes across a tin box with two rubber bands around it. Inside are trophies of the dead women Beadie has murdered and she realizes that each weekend a young girl was abducted, raped, and murdered, Bob was on a coin hunt in the same area. She carefully puts everything back as it was, or at least she thinks she does, and waits for Bob to come home.
When Bob returns, he comes to their bedroom, waits for Darcy to wake, and tells her she forgot one of the rubber bands around the tin box. But it’s okay because he found it. She also put the box back in the wrong place. She cries and is obviously terrified of Bob now, but he reassures her that he loves her and would never hurt her. She makes him promise that he will never kill again. But she doesn’t believe him.
Over the next week or so, her feelings toward Bob dramatically change. That’s perfectly normal. Their usual sex routine is for him to have a drink and bring her a snack. So one night when he has his drink and brings her a tray with a snack, she waits in the dark until he reaches the balcony just beyond the top of the stairs. She lunges at him, pushing him off the balcony, tray and all. Since she drugged his drink, he’s not lucid enough to try to break his fall. He doesn’t die immediately, so Darcy suffocates him, disposing of all the evidence. Then she calls 9-1-1.
Bob is buried in a nice family funeral and Darcy throws into the grave the earrings he gave her from one of his victims. She buries his treasure trove of trophies. And she thinks it’s over. But a detective from another jurisdiction who believes they both murdered together is dogging her. He has lung cancer and he’s dying, but he wants to solve this case before he goes. After Bob dies, he ends up in the hospital and Darcy comes to see him. She assumes he’s going to tell everyone that Bob was Beadie, exposing her children to the ridicule that will come with being related to him. But that’s not what the detective does. He asks her a few questions and she tells him everything. Then he tells her she did the right thing. She kisses him on the cheek and leaves.
7 out of 10 stars. Stephen King’s stories are hit or miss, especially the ones that are made into films. This was a good one.
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