IT'S COMPLICATED
AT 60, MERYL Streep continues to be a bankable box office star. Last year, both her films have reached the $100 million mark, "Julie and Julia" (for which she's nominated for the 16th time in the Oscar Awards) and "It's Complicated". The latter film is from Nancy Meyers, one of the top female directors in Hollywood ("The Parent Trap", "Something's Gotta Give", "The Holiday", "What Women Want")
The film is about Jane (Meryl Streep), who's been divorced from her husband, Jake (Alec Baldwin), for ten years and is now an independent woman running her own bakeshop-restaurant. Their three kids are now all grown ups. Jake has remarried to a much younger woman, Agnes (Lake Bell.) The estranged couple meet again in a bar in New York for the graduation of their youngest son. One thing leads to another and they end up in bed. Jake becomes enamoured once again with his ex-wife and they start a torrid affair. Jane is afraid it's all a mistake since she has now become the other woman, and things really get complicated when she also gets close to the architect of the house she's having renovated, Adam (Steve Martin).
The film is aptly titled because Jane's love affairs make it difficult even for the viewer who to choose for her. When she's with Jake, we want them to be able to resume their interrupted love story. But when she's with Adam, he also seems so right for her. And I think the writer-director really wants the viewer to experience the dilemma of the situation's being complicated. Unlike in most other rom-coms where you are sure you want the two leads to end up in each other's arms, here, you're not very certain who's really the best for Jane. But of course, we do agree with her final choice, and we're not gonna reveal here who it is.
The film works mainly because it's written with much wit and charm. The scenes with Jane and her friends (Rita Wilson, Mary Kaye Place) are something you can imagine really happening between female buddies who can talk about their most intimate fears and whims.
The acting is also uniformly superb. Rom-coms work best when the leads are younger actors, but here, all the lead actors are past 50 but the film works mainly because they're all good. So who says that love is wasted only on the young? The three leads have great chemistry together and their portrayals of their respective characters are all on target, without even trying to upstage each other. Credit Meyer for equally distributing the laughs among the three stars. Even in that big scene of Alec with the full moon, Meryl and Steve are still given hilarious reaction shots that elicit good laughs. Most of her jokes really work.
Meryl looks radiant on screen and succeeds in conveying the confusion as she cavorts with her own ex-husband to cheat on his younger trophy wife while at the same time welcoming her awakened sexuality. Do you still doubt that she can play anything? In the mini-series "Angels in America", she even played a man! Alec manages to match her humor, managing to make his adulterous character even sympathetic. Steve brings a lot of humanity to his own role as the addled new suitor.
In "Something's Gotta Give", Meyer got lots of laugh for Diane Keaton's nude scene. Here, it's Alec Baldwin who does that and it's riotously ribtickling. Steve is totally engaging and wisely plays the shy Adam on a lower key than Baldwin's portrayal of Jake. If you have some aches and believe that laughter is the best medicine, by all means see this film and you'll no doubt be cured with the laughs here that range from merry giggles to laugh out loud guffaws that will keep you smiling all the way home.
AT 60, MERYL Streep continues to be a bankable box office star. Last year, both her films have reached the $100 million mark, "Julie and Julia" (for which she's nominated for the 16th time in the Oscar Awards) and "It's Complicated". The latter film is from Nancy Meyers, one of the top female directors in Hollywood ("The Parent Trap", "Something's Gotta Give", "The Holiday", "What Women Want")
The film is about Jane (Meryl Streep), who's been divorced from her husband, Jake (Alec Baldwin), for ten years and is now an independent woman running her own bakeshop-restaurant. Their three kids are now all grown ups. Jake has remarried to a much younger woman, Agnes (Lake Bell.) The estranged couple meet again in a bar in New York for the graduation of their youngest son. One thing leads to another and they end up in bed. Jake becomes enamoured once again with his ex-wife and they start a torrid affair. Jane is afraid it's all a mistake since she has now become the other woman, and things really get complicated when she also gets close to the architect of the house she's having renovated, Adam (Steve Martin).
The film is aptly titled because Jane's love affairs make it difficult even for the viewer who to choose for her. When she's with Jake, we want them to be able to resume their interrupted love story. But when she's with Adam, he also seems so right for her. And I think the writer-director really wants the viewer to experience the dilemma of the situation's being complicated. Unlike in most other rom-coms where you are sure you want the two leads to end up in each other's arms, here, you're not very certain who's really the best for Jane. But of course, we do agree with her final choice, and we're not gonna reveal here who it is.
The film works mainly because it's written with much wit and charm. The scenes with Jane and her friends (Rita Wilson, Mary Kaye Place) are something you can imagine really happening between female buddies who can talk about their most intimate fears and whims.
The acting is also uniformly superb. Rom-coms work best when the leads are younger actors, but here, all the lead actors are past 50 but the film works mainly because they're all good. So who says that love is wasted only on the young? The three leads have great chemistry together and their portrayals of their respective characters are all on target, without even trying to upstage each other. Credit Meyer for equally distributing the laughs among the three stars. Even in that big scene of Alec with the full moon, Meryl and Steve are still given hilarious reaction shots that elicit good laughs. Most of her jokes really work.
Meryl looks radiant on screen and succeeds in conveying the confusion as she cavorts with her own ex-husband to cheat on his younger trophy wife while at the same time welcoming her awakened sexuality. Do you still doubt that she can play anything? In the mini-series "Angels in America", she even played a man! Alec manages to match her humor, managing to make his adulterous character even sympathetic. Steve brings a lot of humanity to his own role as the addled new suitor.
In "Something's Gotta Give", Meyer got lots of laugh for Diane Keaton's nude scene. Here, it's Alec Baldwin who does that and it's riotously ribtickling. Steve is totally engaging and wisely plays the shy Adam on a lower key than Baldwin's portrayal of Jake. If you have some aches and believe that laughter is the best medicine, by all means see this film and you'll no doubt be cured with the laughs here that range from merry giggles to laugh out loud guffaws that will keep you smiling all the way home.
