IT’S COMPLICATED review

By
Gary Murray
Published: December 21, 2009Posted in: News, Reviews
IT’S COMPLICATED review
Meryl Streep is considered one of the best actresses ever to grace the Silver Screen. She has been nominated for the Oscar more than any other performer and has taken the little statue home. This woman has been honored for decades–praised by fans, critics and colleagues. But, every once in awhile, you have to take a role to pay the bills. That seems to be the basic thrust behind the reason she’s involved with It’s Complicated.
The film starts with two couples reminiscing about old times. But we soon find that one of the couples are a couple no more. Jane (Meryl Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, living in California and running her own restaurant/bakery . Jane’s ex Jake (Alec Baldwin) cheated on her with a much younger Agness (Lake Bell), the former other woman and the current wife. The fifteen years of being single have given Jane a settled if not comfortable life. With her last kid leaving, she begins to see her home as an empty nest.
Jane and Jake go to New York for the graduation of their son, staying in the same hotel. Both get stood up for dinner and decide to eat together at the hotel bar. Well, loads of booze and wine with a little dancing and they wake up in the same bed. Each wonders if the break-up of the marriage was something that may have been premature. So, begins our affair with Jane as the other woman.
To complicate matters, Agness wants Jake to make another baby which means we get fertility clinic jokes. On the other side of the plot. Jane is finally getting around to make the home kitchen of her dreams which leads her to an architect Adam (Steve Martin), newly divorced and still looking for that perfect second match. It is the illicit relationship between Jake and Jane as they deal with their families, both primary and secondary, that drives the plot of It’s Complicated. The two are just trying to figure out if what they have is a real relationship or a mere flirtation with the past.
I have to hand it to Alec Baldwin for being brave with his less than stellar body in It’s Complicated. He shows all (and I mean ALL) of his middle-age spread, spread out on the bed of his bedded. It takes some serious guts to let the entire world see you is less than Adonis physical shape. It gets a load of laughs, all at his stubby, hairy expense. He gives his Jake an undercurrent of sadness as a man at a crossroads, looking at what he missed in the last of his life.
Out of our three leads, Steve Martin comes out the best. This former manic comic is almost sedated in his performance, even in the scenes where he is stoned. Here he is a clueless sap who never sees what is going on in front of him to the point of being castrated. More naive than dense, he believes that Jane and Jake have a perfect relationship never imagining that they are an item.
Though Meryl Streep is a powerhouse performer, here she seems to be slumming it. I always expect more from her. Though she shows that one can be older and still sexy, it still feels forced in her relationships with both her men. When Alec tells her “I love when you smell like butter” you believe that she is that person. It is the strength of her presence and not the material that makes Jane work as a character.
John Krasinski delivers another fine job in an underwritten role as the soon to be member of the family, the future son-in-law. His wide eyed shock of seeing his future in-laws going in a hotel room is classic and one wants more from him. He has only a few moments to shine and does his best to deliver.
By far, the biggest waste of the cast is Lake Bell as Agness. This comedic young woman has shown such promise in weak films is given a part with no funny bits. She has some serious comedy chops and is given a role that never uses any of her talents.
In the nitpicking department, It’s Complicated is so poorly edited that the final cut is jarring. The crew that spliced this together either didn’t screen it on a big screen or just didn’t notice how glaring their cuts were. When you notice edit after edit, it means that the cut is ineffective.
The entire exercise of It’s Complicated feels like a French bedroom farce, where everyone seems to almost end up in another bed. The film style goes over the frantic edge as strange bedfellows become stranger. Here it is as manic as putting an old pair of socks. Nancy Meyers usually gives a few strong moments in her films and it is no exception here. Some of the bits are genuinely laugh-filled. There are just not enough of them. In the final analysis, the single moments never deliver a solid experience. Great actors still cannot rise above weak material.

itscomplicated1

Meryl Streep is widely considered one of the best actresses ever to grace the Silver Screen. She has been nominated for the Oscar more than any other performer, and has of course taken the little statue home. This woman has been honored for decades – praised by fans, critics and colleagues. But, every once in awhile, you have to take a role to pay the bills. That seems to be the basic thrust behind the reason she’s involved with It’s Complicated.

The film starts with two couples reminiscing about old times. But we soon find that one of the couples are a couple no more. Jane (Meryl Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, living in California and running her own restaurant/bakery . Jane’s ex Jake (Alec Baldwin) cheated on her with the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), the former other woman and the current wife. The fifteen years of being single have given Jane a settled if not comfortable life. With her last kid leaving, she begins to see her home as an empty nest.

Jane and Jake go to New York for the graduation of their son, staying in the same hotel. Both get stood up for dinner and decide to eat together at the hotel bar. Well, loads of booze and wine with a little dancing and they wake up in the same bed. Each wonders if the break-up of the marriage was something that may have been premature. So begins our affair with Jane as the other woman.

To complicate matters, Agness wants Jake to make another baby which means we get fertility clinic jokes. On the other side of the plot. Jane is finally getting around to make the home kitchen of her dreams, which leads her to an architect Adam (Steve Martin), newly divorced and still looking for that perfect second match. It is the illicit relationship between Jake and Jane as they deal with their families, both primary and secondary, that drives the plot of It’s Complicated. The two are just trying to figure out if what they have is a real relationship or a mere flirtation with the past.

itscomplicated2

I have to hand it to Alec Baldwin for being brave with his less than stellar body in It’s Complicated. He shows all (and I mean ALL) of his middle-age spread, spread out on the bed of his bedded. It takes some serious guts to let the entire world see you is less than Adonis physical shape. It gets a load of laughs, all at his stubby, hairy expense. He gives his Jake an undercurrent of sadness as a man at a crossroads, looking at what he missed in the last of his life.

Out of our three leads, Steve Martin comes out the best. This former manic comic is almost sedated in his performance, even in the scenes where he is stoned. Here he is a clueless sap who never sees what is going on in front of him to the point of being castrated. More naive than dense, he believes that Jane and Jake have a perfect relationship never imagining that they are an item.

Though Meryl Streep is a powerhouse performer, here she seems to be slumming it. I always expect more from her. Though she shows that one can be older and still sexy, it still feels forced in her relationships with both her men. When Alec tells her “I love when you smell like butter” you believe that she is that person. It is the strength of her presence and not the material that makes Jane work as a character.

John Krasinski delivers another fine job in an underwritten role as the soon to be member of the family, the future son-in-law. His wide eyed shock of seeing his future in-laws going in a hotel room is classic, and one wants more from him. He has only a few moments to shine and does his best to deliver. By far, the biggest waste of the cast is Lake Bell as Agness. This comedic young woman has shown such promise in weak films is given a part with no funny bits. She has some serious comedy chops and is given a role that never uses any of her talents.

In the nitpicking department, It’s Complicated is so poorly edited that the final cut is jarring. The crew that spliced this together either didn’t screen it on a big screen or just didn’t notice how glaring their cuts were. When you notice edit after edit, it means that the cut is ineffective. The entire exercise of It’s Complicated feels like a French bedroom farce, where everyone seems to almost end up in another bed. The film style goes over the frantic edge as strange bedfellows become stranger. Here it’s as manic as putting an old pair of socks. Nancy Meyers usually gives a few strong moments in her films and it is no exception here. Some of the bits are genuinely laugh-filled. There are just not enough of them. In the final analysis, the single moments never deliver a solid experience. Great actors still cannot rise above weak material.

itscomplicated3

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