'I'm Like a Catalyst'

It's just that anyone who has been in a long relationship has come up against difficult situations and I just thought you don't see that in cinema, or anywhere in pop culture, where it's quite this honest. It's obviously a marriage in crisis, but these people have been together for 10 years. He'd never cheated on her [before] in that time and they had children happily and were married happily. It's something of a cautionary tale about where marriage can end up if you're not communicating and you're not taking care of your dreams and the other person's aspirations. We are sort of spoon-fed this sort of idyllic--or just totally criminalized--idea of marriage. We rarely get to see something so honestly portrayed in a way that makes us appreciate the marriages we have. Or, even for people who aren't married, to sort of understand the difficulties of it and how important the mantel, the tradition, that you have been passed is. It comes from my deep respect of marriage that I wanted to do this film.

Do you know people who are in this situation? Have you met people like your character, Jack?

Well, in the past few years, I've had friends who have been married for 15 or 20 years, or less--and, three couples in particular have all sort of blown up. And they all have kids and I loved all of them dearly, and they are all right and they are all wrong. When you see the statistics, 50 percent of marriages are ending in divorce. And something like 75 percent of men will cheat--or have cheated--on their wives.

Really? That's comforting to hear as someone who just got married a month ago.

Well, 45 percent of woman will cheat--or have cheated--on their husbands.... [Adultery] is just topical, it's something that's going on around us. Marriage is such a big institution. It's really part of our culture in a big way. It's even connected to the American Dream.

The wife, the kids, the white picket fence.