Sunday, May 23, 2010

1352 - It''s Complicated


So Nancy Meyer seems to have found her niche in writing for middle aged women - and to be fair - she's attracting top talent. Her films, including this one, are good, but not great, and I think the problem lies in that she's got a monopoly on this crowd and no one else appears to be stepping up to be heard - so it's easy to be the big dog in this kennel.
The cast, like I mentioned are tops. John Krasinski even plays a broader version of his Office character, Jim. This isn't a slight to him at all, in fact, he brings something unique to this film, and any time he's a bit too much I think is merely a script thing.
Alec Baldwin has never been better than this stage of his career. He's interesting to me. Meryl is lovely and gets a chance to do some fun, light stuff. Steve Martin is a mystery to me here. His character doesn't have much to do, and I'd argue that's one of the bigger problems with the film - he'st just kind of there, lingering, never demanding anything for himself.
There is one perfect amazing sequence about half-way through the film where they all gather at a party at Meryl's daughters place. Hilarity and heart ensue. Doesn't help that there's a Beach Boy song underscoring. The film never comes back around to the brilliance of this earlier moment. So like I said, its good - not great. Highly recommend for those whom like her work, otherwise it's worth seeing at some point of you like rom-coms.

2 comments:

Screenwriting Spinster said...

I took my mom to see this at Christmas time. We liked it a lot. I laughed out loud several times and like I have said in my RomCom posts on my blog, that satisfies me now due to low expectations when going to these types of films. With this one, I think it at least had heart and wasn't talking down to its audience like other films do (27 Dresses or SATC2). And if not for the actors the film would certainly fail. But I think it's harmless fun. A definite rental. And I heart Alec Baldwin. Ever since 30 ROCK, he's become my new obsession ;)

Jeremy said...

It's true - it's not hard to make a good RomCom these days given that there are so many that are so bad.