Married in America (2002)
New Line Television

Description

Noted filmmaker Michael Apted (known for his groundbreaking 7 Up documentary series) talks to nine engaged couples to examine the institution of marriage and discern what makes us want to be together. Among the subjects he captures on camera --who represent a cross section of America -- are a couple of high school sweethearts, a couple practicing Weight Watchers together and a couple with children from a previous marriage.

Tags

2000s, Relationships, USA

Collected reviews and ratings

9.0 Salon.com | Carina Chocano

As it turns out, the real story in "Married in America" is often moving, sometimes sad and occasionally hilarious. What makes a couple decide to get married? And what challenges do they face going in? Is it possible to predict the outcome of a marriage based on what each individual brings to the union or on what obstacles they have overcome, together or alone, in the past?
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8.0 New York Times | Julie Salamon

The questions go beyond the basics of ''Where did you meet?'' to address long-term concerns like: Which partner is more ambitious? Who tends to take charge? The portraits become windows into the diversity of American life, which can seem so hopeful and accepting but also so strange and trashy.
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7.5 PopMatters.com | Lesley Smith

Even at his worst, Apted is still a far more skilled documentarian than most of his television contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, relying on the alchemy of his subjects’ voices, not the all-too-common vapid, know-it-all voice-over, to transmute individual lives into a sometimes sparkling moment of social history.
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