Hollywood is often criticized for failing to release movies for anyone over the physical or emotional age of about 16. Well, if this one is typical of what the studios think grown-ups want to see, then give me Judd Apatow any day.
My wife and I are probably in the bull's-eye of the target market for It's Complicated - we're mid-fifties, white, one a lawyer, the other the owner of a small business, with three grown children. Neither of us has smoked dope since before the kids were born, but we like our wine. One has been though a divorce. We could be Jane and Jake! Then why does this whole production ring so completely hollow from start to finish? Here are a few reasons: 1. These two are supposed to be highly, even ridiculously, successful yet neither one seems to have the least problem in taking off for hours at a time in the middle of the day. The Blackberry never interrupts to remind them that they have jobs; they have every evening off to pursue their liaison. Jane may drop in to her chic bakery (or, as it is no doubt called, her patisserie) from time to time to dip a well-manicured finger into a batch of croissant dough, but Jake seems to be completely idle - a rich lawyer, with two families to support, staying in suites at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, driving a Porsche, and no hours to bill. Nice work if you can get it.
2. Jane has a large house with a beautiful kitchen (two ovens, no less). Her kids are all out of the house, she's living alone and (despite rarely showing up at work) evidently a woman with a thriving business. Perhaps time to downsize, find a nice townhouse or even a condo by the beach somewhere? Maybe cash out and put aside some of the proceeds for an early and well-deserved retirement in the south of France? Not a bit of it. She wants to put on a huge addition, with an "enclosed" kitchen, to the tune of about $200K.
3. Meanwhile, Jake has left the literate, talented, independent and still quite beautiful Jane, for a woman with the personality of a piranha and no perceptible ability to carry on a conversation. And, with due respect, not a great looker either.
Were it not for Meryl Streep, this film would be utterly devoid of any redeeming merit. After about 10 minutes the only pleasure that can be derived from it is in watching a great actress, through the enormity of her talent, make a lousy movie tolerable.
There may be a decent movie to be made from this premise, but if there is it will be made in France or Italy, where they approach these things with a degree of sophistication and wit that seems to be well beyond Hollywood's grasp.
My wife and I are probably in the bull's-eye of the target market for It's Complicated - we're mid-fifties, white, one a lawyer, the other the owner of a small business, with three grown children. Neither of us has smoked dope since before the kids were born, but we like our wine. One has been though a divorce. We could be Jane and Jake! Then why does this whole production ring so completely hollow from start to finish? Here are a few reasons: 1. These two are supposed to be highly, even ridiculously, successful yet neither one seems to have the least problem in taking off for hours at a time in the middle of the day. The Blackberry never interrupts to remind them that they have jobs; they have every evening off to pursue their liaison. Jane may drop in to her chic bakery (or, as it is no doubt called, her patisserie) from time to time to dip a well-manicured finger into a batch of croissant dough, but Jake seems to be completely idle - a rich lawyer, with two families to support, staying in suites at the Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, driving a Porsche, and no hours to bill. Nice work if you can get it.
2. Jane has a large house with a beautiful kitchen (two ovens, no less). Her kids are all out of the house, she's living alone and (despite rarely showing up at work) evidently a woman with a thriving business. Perhaps time to downsize, find a nice townhouse or even a condo by the beach somewhere? Maybe cash out and put aside some of the proceeds for an early and well-deserved retirement in the south of France? Not a bit of it. She wants to put on a huge addition, with an "enclosed" kitchen, to the tune of about $200K.
3. Meanwhile, Jake has left the literate, talented, independent and still quite beautiful Jane, for a woman with the personality of a piranha and no perceptible ability to carry on a conversation. And, with due respect, not a great looker either.
Were it not for Meryl Streep, this film would be utterly devoid of any redeeming merit. After about 10 minutes the only pleasure that can be derived from it is in watching a great actress, through the enormity of her talent, make a lousy movie tolerable.
There may be a decent movie to be made from this premise, but if there is it will be made in France or Italy, where they approach these things with a degree of sophistication and wit that seems to be well beyond Hollywood's grasp.