Though the story is not his newest, A Good Marriage is the latest book by Stephen King to be made into a movie. Though I will admit that it was not my favorite story the he has ever written, I thought that the film itself did not really do this story justice at all. After watching the movie and being so utterly disappointed, I figured I should write a quick review of A Good Marriage for all of my fellow Stephen King fans out there.

From the name of this movie, you may think that you’re going to be watching a love story complete with a genuine romance and leading up to a beautiful wedding. However, there isn’t any champagne or wedding sparklers in this movie; just a crazy realization that the man she’s been married to for so many years is in fact a serial killer.

The basic plot is that a women and her husband are celebrating a long marriage after raising 2 children who are starting a life of their own. The man is an avid collector of coins and runs a business selling them. He travels a lot to buy lots of coins for his own collection and for resale, and he has been doing this most of their marriage. One day, the wife is searching for batteries in the garage and stumbles upon a secret hiding spot with ID cards for several missing girls from over the years. She quickly realizes that her husband has been killing women for many years and is actually a very infamous serial killer.

With a plot like that, it should be easy to put together a great movie. However, instead the acting falls flat. The man who plays the serial killer doesn’t really do a convincing job of making you believe he is deranged and has split personalities, so the entire vibe of the story falls apart within the first half hour. There are a few moments of well-directed suspense scenes, but for the most part you are just going through the obvious motions as a viewer.

I will say that I think this story is well worth the time if you are looking for a fun Stephen King read, but it isn’t a movie I would look forward to watching on a Saturday night. There’s a reason this movie never went to the theater and was released straight to DVD, and from the moment you start watching you’ll understand why. Anyways, I hope you all agree with my review of A Good Marriage and keep on reading those Stephen King books!