Official Site of Marcia Gay Harden :: The Work

What happens when your new best friend is your husband's mistress? Madelyn Reid (Marcia Gay Harden) accidentally learns of her husband's infidelity when she saves his sexy young mistress Lucy (Leonor Watling) from a bungled suicide attempt. When her unsuspecting young rival suggests the two new friends take each other's advice - on everything - Madelyn sees an opportunity to seize the upper hand. But the plan backfires when Lucy, an aspiring actress, insists Madelyn keep her end of the bargain and orders her to star as King Lear in a community production, with Lucy playing The Fool. Things really get out of control when Lucy starts giving Madelyn instructions on dealing with an amorous coworker and a handsome stranger (Aidan Quinn). "If I Were You" is a very entertaining look at the unexpected places that life can take us.

Writer / Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin

"If I Were You" Does Screwball Canadian Comedy

March 2013
Featuring adultery without the naughty bits, a wife-mistress rivalry, and a couple of nursing-home deaths, If I Were You is a screwball comedy for Canadians—not LOL funny, but as crazy as you might expect Toronto to get. Using whip-smart wordplay from writer-director Joan Carr-Wiggin (A Previous Engagement), Marcia Gay Harden does a star turn in versatility. Forget "mash-up"—Harden works many modes, side-by-side and within each other. So polite that she races off in embarrassment after spotting her husband (Joseph Kell) at a compromising lunch with a gorgeous young thing, her Madelyn turns events to her advantage and ends up with three men drooling over her—a nice brains-trumps-cute trick from a starchy matron in sensible heels—even as she fends off Leonor Watling's charmingly ditzy Lucy.
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Film Review: If I Were You

March 2013
An unholy alliance is formed when Madelyn (Marcia Gay Harden) horrifyingly spots her husband Paul (Joseph Kell) having dinner with a heretofore unsuspected and quite younger girlfriend, Lucy (Leonor Watling), an aspiring actress of no discernible talent. Madelyn follows Lucy home and prevents the dippy, distraught girl from committing suicide, never telling her who she really is. She gets the details of her husband’s affair from Lucy, and describes her own experience with a straying partner. A completely ignorant Lucy observes that people screw up their own lives but would never willfully destroy someone else’s, so the two make a pact to give each other advice with the caveat that they both must do exactly what they are told.
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The Terrific Marcia Gay Harden Movie You Didn't Get to See in Theaters

February 2013
As Oscar night draws closer, the prognosticators have declared a neck-and-neck-and-neck race between Jennifer Lawrence ( The Silver Linings Playbook ), Jessica Chastain ( Zero Dark Thirty ), and Emmanuelle Riva ( Amour) for the Best Actress prize. Forgive me, however, for feeling that the competition is a bit rigged this year. In the romantic farce If I Were You ,University of Texas alumna Marcia Gay Harden delivered a performance every bit as accomplished and unexpected as those that were Oscar-nominated—and yet she never even got the chance to compete.
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