It’s Complicated isn’t very complicated. The movie is basically director and writer Nancy Meyer’s wish-fulfillment fantasy. Meryl Streep plays a 60-ish divorced woman who can cook and bake (she owns restaurants), has two good-looking successful men vying for her affection, three perfect children, three perfect friends, and is about to build a beautiful new kitchen for her fabulous house. Meyer overplays her hand when she has Adam (one of Steep’s prospective lovers played by Steve Martin) tell her, “Your age is one of things I most like about you.” Empowerment fantasies are powerful which is why Meyer doesn’t tamper with her successful template that produced money-making movies like What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Holiday. Alec Baldwin plays Streep’s randy ex-husband who woos her again. Every cliche about younger wives find their way into the plot. Clearly, Meyer knows how to push a woman’s buttons. The theater we saw It’s Complicated in was packed, mostly with women. GRADE: B
Well, Meyer could have had Meryl pack on about 30 pounds for the role and then had Baldwin say something like, “I love how round and soft you are now” in a sincere manner.
Now that would have been pandering.
The only actor who broke a sweat in IT’S COMPLICATED was Alec Baldwin, Deb. Yes, he’s a little chubby, but his raffish good-humored wooing of his ex-wife struck me as sincere. The rest of the cast seemed to be on cruise control.
Sounds like the perfect anniversary present for Diane!
😉
Deb, looks like Baldwin is the round one here.
As you know, Jeff, Diane loves romantic comedies. IT’S COMPLICATED has a lot of firepower with Steep, Baldwin, and Martin. Too bad they didn’t have much to do in Meyer’s predictable plot.
It was good enough for the season. But they were way too rich. With so many homeless and hungry, the sumptuousness of their dinner table, their garden, their store was off-putting. And then she is redecorating? And Streep has become a giggler. I realize she is inordinately happy to be so popular at sixty, but geez.
My audience loved it too.
It was all about pandering to a holiday audience full of upper middle-class women and the poor guys they dragged along. Only Baldwin’s belly kept it real in any way.
You’re right about the wealth, Patti. Money was not a problem in this movie. Or for the audience of upper middle-class women and the poor guys they dragged along. Baldwin’s belly gives hope to us chubby guys.
Hey, Patti, just because there are homeless and hungry people, that doesn’t mean it’s no longer okay to acknowledge that some have money. That seems a little too PC for me. Doesn’t seem you liked much else about it either, though. How was the music?
Opulence was on display in IT’S COMPLICATED, Rick. It seems that almost every movie I’ve seen lately has a song by The Beach Boys as part of the soundtrack.
UP IN THE AIR was an exception to that, George, though there was an interesting version of “This Land is My Land.”
The soundtrack to UP IN THE AIR was certainly eclectic, Jeff. The montage that “This Land is My Land” played over is an attention-grabber.
I don’t mind displays of wealth within reason. But Nancy Meyers is over the top-she just revels in it. The table fairly groaned with food. The house was already a candidate for Architects Digest before they called in Steve Martin. I never noticed the music. Was there any?
I saw THE MAID last night, also about a rich family. But they had other things to say. I only noticed the song over the closing credits, sad to say. I may be a closet Socialist, Rick. Don’t tell my husband.
Money was just a backdrop in THE MAID. Meyers makes it the main event.
Between Alec Baldwin’s snazzy sports car and Meryl Steep’s million-dollar house, wealth was certainly on display in IT’S COMPLICATED, Patti.