Hoyts, Melbourne Central, 12/1/2010
Status: a bit ahead
It occurred to me that they probably don’t release 120 movies a year at my local independent cinema, so I would have to venture further afield to the mainstream multiplex behemoth to keep my numbers up. Of all the films currently screening at said multiplex, It’s Complicated seemed the least offensive (you know I love you, but I will not see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel for you or anyone).
It’s Complicated’s cast is solid, writer-director Nancy Meyers doesn’t always make crap, and, although it was a romantic comedy, at least the set up was different to the same old-same old tripe. Not particularly promising, but at least I made sure to go on Tightarse Tuesday.
One of my expectations was met, at least: the cast were solid. Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) and John Krasinski (The US Office) in particular were very good, keeping the energy high and the laughs coming. Steve Martin (The Pink Panther remakes and L.A. Story), although good with the comedy, was surprisingly (disappointingly) wooden with the drama.
Although I enjoyed the performances quite a bit, I couldn't help feeling that the actors did very well despite the script. There were holes and flaws that this cast skated over, but a less skilled one would have fallen down never to be seen again.
Most disappointing was that the film didn’t live up to it’s initial promise of differentiating itself from the glut of American romantic comedies about thirty-somethings looking for love in all the wrong places. Streep plays Jane, who is struggling with her empty nest as the last of her three children leave for college. She falls into an affair with her ex-husband (Baldwin) who has married a much younger woman. Jane is also being wooed by her architect (Martin) and the story builds to the point where she must choose between them.
There seemed a lot of promise there – an older woman not desperate to pair up with anything that moves; no stupid reliance on a happy-ever-after ending; a properly complicated set up with the potential for real, not just superficial “but how do I know if he really likes me?!”, conflict. The film did deliver a few eloquent comments about love, familiarity, care-taking and the reality of older men who remarry younger women, but these comments are secondary to a plot that, for all this, turns out to be exactly the same as every other romantic comedy out there.
My expectations weren’t that Meyers would turn the entire genre on it’s head, I was just hoping that we might get something – anything – that we hadn’t seen before. No such luck.
(Update: Thanks to my awesome friend Trev who made me a spectacular new header for the reviewdle and a couple of sketches. One charming one for Ms Streep and Mr Baldwin and a positively saucy one for Mr Downey Jnr. Thanks, Trev! JB)
(Update: Thanks to my awesome friend Trev who made me a spectacular new header for the reviewdle and a couple of sketches. One charming one for Ms Streep and Mr Baldwin and a positively saucy one for Mr Downey Jnr. Thanks, Trev! JB)