(Lifestyles of the Rich, Horny, and Over-50...)
CAST: Meryl Steep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Lake Bell, John Krasinski.
DIRECTOR: Nancy Meyers
WARNING: SPOILERS and criminally-gorgeous interiors I will never be able to afford - right up ahead.
Seeing the myriad trailers and posters for IT’S COMPLICATED, I knew it was about a well-to-do fifty something (Meryl Streep) who is lured back into an illicit affair with her caddish ex-husband (Alec Baldwin), who is now married to the younger woman he left her for. In the meantime, she meets a recently-divorced architect (Steve Martin) who makes her feel even more conflicted about her torrid fuck-a-thon with her ex. I also knew that it was likely going to be another movie afflicted with the “LLT” syndrome - “Lopsided Love Triangle” syndrome. The LLT is a romantic (or sexual) situation in which one person is torn between two potential mates - one of whom is an obviously and blatantly better choice than the other. These movies are usually a foregone conclusion, where the audience just waits for the protagonist to make the choice that anyone could see coming from several light years away.
But I was wrong. IT’S COMPLICATED doesn’t suffer from LLT syndrome - that would be too much to hope for. Nope. It suffers from WHO CARES syndrome. That’s the worse thing that can afflict a romantic comedy - when you don’t give the slightest shit about who the protagonist ends up with. Now, understand that I’m glad this film made over $100 million at the domestic box office. That means more movies getting made starring people old enough to know that EASY RIDER is a famous movie, and not someone whom you pick up on the road - and who subsequently lets you fuck the living daylights out of them. Unfortunately, the risk is that these movies will end up being more bland, forgettable non-events like what IT’S COMPLICATED turned into.
The “story” revolved around Jane Adler (Streep), who has been divorced for ten years from her philandering ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin), who has now married the navel-pierced tramp (Lake Bell) that he screwed around with. Jane takes this all in stride, as evidenced by her reaction at a garden party that Jake and the She-Devil happen to be at. No teeth-gnashing. No fist-clenching. No ripping out of ovaries. Jane is much too much of a lady for that. Nope, she goes home and bitches about it to her fellow fifty-somethings over wine and pie. Yes, wine and pie. That’s how you can really tell you’re getting old: when you mix alcohol with… pastries. Ever hear of Cheetos, ladies?
Anyhow, the third point of the, ahem, “triangle” arrives in the weak form of Adam (Steve Martin, looking, well, not at all like Steve Martin), an architect who is trying to get over his divorce by listening to self-help CDs in order to keep from strangling his ex-wife. By the way, he’s been divorced for several years - and still has to listen to CDs. If this doesn’t clue you (or Jane) in to the fact this guys is snooze material, then I’m afraid you (and she) are doomed. Adam shows up in Jane’s life just after she returns from attending her son’s college graduation in NYC - where she banged Jake (also attending, but without the She-Devil) in a drunken stupor at their hotel. This is the part where the conflict is supposed to begin - Jane meeting an “attractive” and “available” man, while being haunted (and hounded) by her “seductive” and “alluring” ex. This is the dramatic crux, folks, and it’s a good one. It worked wonders for BRIDGET JONES’ DIARY. Why not here? Why not with such talented actors as Meryl Steep, Alec B. and Stevie M.”
Here’s why not: not a single one of them is playing an interesting character. Meryl Streep does what she can to enliven the role of Jane, but aside from some choice lines (“Turns out, I’m a bit of a slut) and decent scenes, the character is largely bland and not compelling. More like, “Turns out, I’m a bit of a drag). Alec Baldwin is a born comedian, and he gives Jake somewhat of a “bad-boy” edge - but that’s all. You just don’t understand what - besides the sex - Jane would want from him. And he’s a double-adulterer, too boot. Which I’m sure happens a lot in real life, but in escapist fare like this that ‘s supposed to tease you with “will-they-or-won’t-they” I’m afraid there are very little shades of gray. And Jane’s actions start to siphon off sympathy for her.
And then there’s Adam, easily the most boring and blank potential love interest in recent memory. Even inserting a scene wherein he and Jane accidentally get high at her son’s party, to try to give him some shading and an opportunity to loosen up, doesn’t quite come off. The whole time, I kept thinking: These are her fucking choices? It doesn’t help that Streep doesn’t seem to have much chemistry with either Baldwin or Martin. Interestingly, she actually strikes sparks with John Krasinski, who plays her son-in-law Harley, who unwittingly witnesses one of Jake and Jane’s clandestine booty calls at a local hotel that he and his wife are having lunch at. Watching the hapless Harley try to wrap his head around the whole scenario, with Jane breathing down his neck, is priceless. Whenever Streep and Krasinski are in frame, I kept wishing for a different movie: GO, COUGAR!
Needless to say, Jane winds up with the more “promising” mate. In this case… Adam. I’m sure in some fucked-up, far-flung galaxy he’s considered hot stuff - but I’d hate to visit there. I know Nancy Meyers was probably going for a male character who wasn’t (1) a douchebag, or (2) a sex-maniac, or (3) unemployed. Someone reliable and decent who was supposed to be a counterpoint to rascally Jake. But she didn’t have to make him so boring. Look at Colin Firth vs. Hugh Grant in BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY. Now, there’s a good man who made you forget about the bad one. The character of Adam might have had a chance with someone like Kevin Costner playing him. Someone who could make bookishness and reserve actually seem sexy. Then maybe we would have the LLT syndrome, at least. Instead of WHO CARES?
BUT, SERIOUSLY: The best way to understand how disappointing and unsatisfying IT’S COMPLICATED is, is to compare it to Nancy Meyers’ previous effort: the wonderful SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE. That film also concerned a middle-aged (or more) couple being caught off guard by each other - and then by their growing love for one another. But whereas that film had a genuine and moving sense of romance and emotion about it, IT’S COMPLICATED has facile monkey-sex.
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE also did not suffer at all from LLT, let alone WHO CARES. Primarily because both Harry (Jack Nicholson) and Julian (Keanu Reeves) were formidable choices for Erica (Diane Keaton). You could feel her conflict. Also, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE has two wonderful scenes of great emotional resonance: Erica shyly telling Harry that she had a good time - and him responding that he felt like he’d spent time with a soulmate. And then later, when they confront each other outside a Manhattan restaurant and Erica lays bare her soul. I never fail to tear up at these scenes.
Contrast this with IT’S COMPLICATED, which shows emotional resonance by having Jake tell Jane that he loves that she stopped trimming her pubes and has gone “native.” Ugh. And that's the problem with IT'S COMPLICATED: the only thing at stake for Jane are her continued orgasms. In SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE, the only thing at stake was Erica's heart. Which, in the end, is really everything, right?
