HARRY (Chris Cooper) is a well-to-do 1949 businessman who likes “Married Life” with his wife (Patricia Clarkson). He simply likes his mistress (Rachel McAdams) a little more.

As he begins to eye the exit routes from his marriage, Harry’s swinging bachelor friend Richard (Pierce Brosnan) offers measured advice over cocktails. Should Harry take it – or is Richard about to take Harry’s mistress?

Arch, wry and dry, with its exquisite wallpaper and impeccably blocked fedoras, “Married Life” is bracingly malicious noir for a while, a sort of gray-flannel-suit take on the Coen brothers’ “Blood Simple.” Every character seems morally capable of anything.

But everything hangs on the ending in this kind of movie, and “Married Life” doesn’t have one. Just when things should be boiling over, the script goes lukewarm.

Running time: 90 minutes. Rated PG-13 (sexual situations). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Sunshine.