If I Were You

A smart, sophisticated, and very funny comedy for grownups, If I Were You is built around a masterful performance by Marcia Gay Harden as Madelyn, a successful businesswoman who secretly discovers that her husband, Paul (Joseph Kell), is cheating on her with a beautiful if shallow actress named Lucy (Leonor Watling). Writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin wastes no time adding a delicious twist to this familiar scenario: at the same moment of sickening realization, Madelyn also sees Paul breaking up with Lucy, after which she follows the woman home and winds up interrupting Lucy's suicide attempt. Without revealing her identity, Madelyn becomes a friend and mentor to Lucy, and the pair enter into a pact to support one another in regard to their problems with men. Madelyn, of course, has the upper hand in this arrangement, and while she manipulates her new companion to some extent, her motives ultimately have less to do with revenge. Ironies pile up as Paul suspects Madelyn of having an affair, and matters grow even more complex when a handsome stranger (Aidan Quinn) enters the picture and Madelyn finds herself playing a female version of King Lear in a fringe theatre production together with Lucy. Carr-Wiggin makes it all work in this poignant and moving film featuring a constantly inventive turn by the underrated Harden. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)