A Good Marriage 2014

Darcy Anderson Joan Allen has shared 27 years of marriage with Bob Anderson Anthony LaPaglia, a Portland, Maine–based accountant, and together they run a quiet mail-order business that trades in rare coins. Their life is steady but unglamorous, built on routine days and small, shared pleasures. One afternoon, while Bob is away on business, Darcy heads to the garage in search of batteries and uncovers more than she expects: a pornographic magazine filled with sadomasochistic images that instantly unsettles her. In the same sweep of old belongings, she discovers a hidden compartment behind the baseboard and, inside, a small box containing the ID cards of Marjorie Duvall, a victim connected to a brutal serial killer known as “Beadie.” The jarring find marks a turning point in their marriage and in Darcy’s sense of safety.

The next morning, Darcy is shaken by the phone call from Bob, who senses her distress and tries to deflect it. Curious and alarmed, Darcy digs deeper online, learning about Beadie and cross-referencing Bob’s business records with the locations of the murders. The pattern is clear: Bob was near most of the killings. When Darcy confronts him, he reveals a chilling history. He explains that as teenagers he and a sadistic friend, Brian Delahanty (BD), once plotted a school shooting. Delahanty was hit by a truck before they could carry it out, but Bob insists he had “infected” Delahanty with dangerous ideas, a revelation that sheds a dark light on their past. He claims that after starting a family, his murderous alter ego subsided for years. He pleads with Darcy to bury the matter for the sake of their children and their future, and Darcy, choosing to protect them, agrees to a plan—on the condition that the ID cards be hidden deep in the woods.

Months pass, and a celebration sparks when Bob finds a rare 1955 doubled die cent; the couple goes out to toast the find. However, as champagne loosens Bob’s resolve, Darcy cooks up a lethal plan. She invites him upstairs under the pretense of intimacy, then ambushes him, pushing him down the stairs. The fall shatters his arm, neck, and back, and she suffocates him with a plastic bag to ensure there is no loose end. After removing the evidence, Darcy convinces the police and their children that Bob died in a drunken accident, and she begins to believe the worst is behind her. The house settles into a fragile quiet, and Darcy wonders if the danger has truly passed.

Not long after, Holt Ramsey [Stephen Lang], a retired detective who spent years investigating the Beadie murders and had questioned Bob, arrives at the Anderson home. Ramsey had noticed that Bob’s Chevrolet Suburban appeared near each victim and suspected him, a clue that unsettles Darcy. When she finally admits the truth about Bob’s role in the killings and the Beadie case, Ramsey reassures her that she “did the right thing” by ending the threat, and he departs. Before he leaves, she reveals one more detail—Delahanty’s name and the threat he still posed. In that moment, Darcy realizes the danger may have been closer than she thought, and she recognizes a hard-won peace in owning what she did. The quiet that follows is not merely the absence of danger but the hard-won clarity of having faced the truth and chosen a difficult course of action.