Rating: R | Runtime: 117 minutes
Release Date: February 21st, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Republic Pictures
Director(s): Edward Burns
Writer(s): Edward Burns

It’s easier to ignore the truth than face it.

Nick (Campbell Scott) is soldiering through his wife’s (Julianna Margulies’ Maggie) new novel when he tells her it’s good with the caveat that it’s “still rich people and their champagne problems.” She replies with a pointed “I write what I know.” And that fact is inherently the issue considering his remark was itself a pointed response to discovering that the pitiable and despised husband character in the book was obviously based on him.

The whole Miller family suffers from the same woes within Edward Burns’ Millers in Marriage. Maggie resents her husband’s comfortability with monotony and steps out of their marriage to find the spark she no longer sees in him due to a constant desire for Nick to return to the man he was rather than accept the man he’s become. Eve (Gretchen Mol) has finally reached the empty nest stage of her own union and the quiet emptiness has opened her eyes to everything she gave up to support a husband (Patrick Wilson’s Scott) whose numerous flaws no longer have the notion of “stability for the children” to hide behind. And Andy (Burns) is struggling to regain control of his life in the wake of his wife (Morena Baccarin’s Tina) leaving him to start a “new chapter” of her own.

Three couples dealing with different variations on the same theme of artists in ruts with just as many champagne fantasies as problems. Maggie uses infidelity (with Brian d’Arcy James’ serial adulterer Dennis) to ignore everything she’s grown to hate about Nick. Eve’s ex-rocker seeks to use infidelity (with Benjamin Bratt’s charming music critic) to stop from ignoring how Scott will never change. And Andy gets so wrapped up in new happiness (with Minnie Driver’s Renee) that he finds himself caught in the middle of being glad Tina left and intrigued by the prospect that moving on has rekindled her interest. Burns moves between healthy unhealthiness to unhealthy healthiness with each cut forward (and back).

Is the drama compelling? Sure. The dialogue is often verbose and on-the-nose, but the cast is way too good not to give it life anyway. I also enjoyed the use of flashback (sometimes months or years into the past and sometimes mere hours) so we can be left wondering about certain details until the exact facts prove crucial to the current conversation, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary considering the film is already so talky that the characters could have just explained those moments instead. Burns does enough to keep us engaged through these performances and structure tricks that it doesn’t even matter that he’s not really mining any new territory. It’s just indignation, jealousy, and desire.

The Maggie/Nick dynamic is the least interesting because of how clichéd it unfolds with their two authors using ego and metaphor to cut each other down so blatantly and viciously that they might as well have just spoken their truth without any filter. Eve/Scott is one-dimensional in its implosion, but I loved the effect of that baggage pushing Mol towards Bratt because their scenes are by far the best in terms of chemistry and hope for a happy ending. And, similarly, Andy/Tina is a generic scorner-feeling-scorned fireworks show with the effect of pushing Burns towards Driver—the second-best piece due to their honesty rendering their blossoming romance into a complex and mature exchange of uncompromising self-awareness.

Enjoyment will therefore vary. There’s enough going on that everyone watching should see themselves or a relationship they’ve been in depicted on-screen, so it’s up to you whether that mirror is something you’ll embrace or reject insofar as introspection goes. And those who do find resonance will also need to weigh that emotional jolt against the film’s arguably routine delivery. Yes, it’s Burns making yet another Burns film (like Nick’s backhanded compliment to Maggie), but I think the performances excel enough to overcome any fatigue that truth might conjure in those looking for a reason to watch something else.

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[L-R] Gretchen Mol as “Eve” and Julianna Margulies as “Maggie” in the drama, MILLERS IN MARRIAGE. Photo courtesy of Republic Pictures (a Paramount Pictures label).