'Pajamas' deeper than just pillow talk

Aslow-paced relationship drama may be a tough sell to moviegoers seeking "date night" fare, but for anyone interested in seeing a thoughtful, insightful and painfully honest film about intimacy between couples, "Flannel Pajamas" is it.

It's a talky film right from the get-go, and though it clocks in at about two hours, it seems like much more time has passed by the time it's over, which means that either writer-director Jeff Lipsky has a problem with pacing or he's done a solid job of unraveling the entirety of a relationship.

Stuart (Justin Kirk) and Nicole (Julianne Nicholson) meet during a set-up in a diner. As they plod through the usual first-date questions -- What do you do? Where are you from? Do you have any brothers or sisters? -- they're giddy with the anticipation that this could actually work out. Never mind that Stuart essentially has told her he lies for a living. He writes blurbs and "creates buzz" about Broadway shows to drum up ticket sales. He gives her a couple of examples and he's so convincing that she finds herself asking, "Is that true?" even after he's told her he's made it all up.

Nicole, in turn, makes a point of telling him she's honest to a fault, and we believe her. "Both my parents are alcoholics," she says. That five-word sentence says so much yet Stuart doesn't get it right away. "You're not a listener," she tells him much later in the film. And she's right, but she, too, realizes a lot of things too late.

Sometimes we fall for the wrong person because we believe that old adage that opposites attract, or because our friends and family caution us against it and we want to prove them wrong, or simply because it's been a long time since we've felt connected to someone. Little red flags often go overlooked when romance is overdue.

Despite their differences -- she's Catholic, he's Jewish; she's in debt, he's a saver; she's from a big family, he small -- they cling to each other via sexual chemistry and a dysfunctional symbiosis. When Stuart proposes in bed one night, Nicole asks him why he wants to marry her. He answers, "It's time for me to take care of someone." She accepts that and, in fact, seems to like the thought of being taken care of.

Nicole's best friend, Tess (Chelsea Altman), is the only one who expresses reservations before they tie the knot. She sees how fragile Nicole is and so she treads lightly around the topic, but ultimately is silenced with Nicole's proclamation, "I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him, I love him."

Stuart has already expressed his own reservations about Tess, a married woman who sees other men regularly and is OK with it. Stuart, a good-looking guy with a cool job who we can guess has had his share of relationships, ought to know better than to diss his girlfriend's best friend. Tess rises above her own issues and gives a lovely toast at the wedding, as does Stuart's mentally ill brother, Jordan (Jamie Harrold). Jordan speaks fondly of their dead mother and declares that Nicole is the best thing that's ever happened to Stuart.

As they settle into married life, Nicole is eager to start a family. She wants a lot of children. Stuart, who thinks that "one would be good," wants to put it off so they can enjoy being married for a while. He also wants to make sure they're more financially secure. His practicality is warranted -- they live in a small, one-bedroom, Manhattan high-rise -- and Nicole's belief that there never is a perfect time to have kids is one born of experience. So who wins?

No one. It is this argument that triggers a change in Nicole. And not until she is in the hospital miscarrying does Stuart begin to realize the weight of his wife's baggage. An illuminating conversation with Nicole's mother (Rebecca Schull) opens his eyes for the first time.

What happens to Stuart and Nicole is heartbreaking. Neither is a bad person. Neither is solely to blame, and they truly love each other. It's as close to what the disintegration of a real-life relationship looks like as you'll ever see onscreen.