“Marriage is hard work,” writes Rosamund Pike’s Amy in “Gone Girl,” the latest film from David Fincher, which had its global release last Friday, riding on a salvo of praise from its New York Film Festival premiere (our review is here). Even those among us who haven’t tied the knot, exchanged the vows, and made that wild bid for a happily-ever-after, know that sustaining a successful marriage is tough. We all have our parents, relatives, or friends, to remind us of this fact of life even we have no first-hand experience of it. So perhaps it’s not surprising that there are an embarrassing number of films that tackle the sensitive subject head-on, many of them aiming for the jugular in an attempt to reveal something new about the human condition under matrimonial duress. And now Fincher joining the ranks of the many master filmmakers who have dissected marriage in their films, gives us an opportunity to discuss ten examples, wholly different but no less effective, of cinematic...
