Three couples enter...
A 2012 Romantic Comedy or maybe Black Comedy produced by Outspoken Media and written and directed by Paul D. Hannah, The Marriage Chronicles follows three couples in counseling with Dr. Masters as they're invited to her private home to go on a 3 day marriage retreat to rescue their marriages. Along the way, the three couples find out more about who they are, and come to realizations about who it was that they married and why they're together.
Provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Sabel. She's extremely competent at what she does, and proudly states that she knows it's what she's good at.
- As the Good Book Says...: Ethel frequently makes references back to the Bible to reinforce his points. He's called out a time or two in the movie for said points not existing in the Bible.
- Bittersweet Ending: Two of the couples decide to remain married. The third marriage is likely not going anywhere what with the wife admitting to have repeatedly cheated on the husband with her ex and the husband revealing he killed his wife's ex.
- Destructive Romance: All three of the couples to some degree.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Dr. Masters employs a stripper in an attempt to distract the husbands from writing in their books twenty things they love about their wife. It works on two of the three.
- Electric Torture: Ethel gets worked over in an effort to shock him into realizing that his marriage has problems.
- Epiphany Therapy: Seemingly, the crazy antics of the Masters works to save two of the three marriages. Then, at the end of the movie, they get served a court notice from a woman involved in the prior year's therapy who'd since divorced as the result of it.
- Gold Digger: Sabel. She married her husband to support her lifestyle. Furthermore, she has more money than her husband does, but keeps it hidden in offshore accounts, even though they're facing foreclosure on the house.
- Hypocrite: Sable repeatedly accuses David of lying. It turns out that she was still with her ex-husband, right up until the day that David killed him.
- Instant Sedation: Ethel gets the chloroform rag treatment at one point.
- Madonna-Whore Complex: Ethel is alternately fascinated and horrified by his wife's blooming sexuality.
- The Moral Substitute: The box art, and the concept of following multiple couples through their romantic relationships, highly resembles Love Actually
- Psycho Psychologist: By the end of the movie, the doctors have handcuffed a man and thrown him into the pool, used Electric Torture on another man, and revealed to an unstable couple the infidelity and hidden bank accounts of the parties involved.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Ethel again. He's shown as enjoying the sex antics of his wife, but repeatedly protests that he "don't want no freaky things" during the therapy.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ethel's call to 911 and David's confession that he killed his wife's ex rank high on the list of unresolved items introduced during the movie.
