With her affinity for well designed interiors and well designed comic situations, filmmaker Nancy Meyers has crafted her own little corner of the movie market. As the delightful “Something’s Gotta Give” and the less delightful “The Holiday” proved, this is not always an exact science.
Somewhere in the middle sits the new one, “It’s Complicated.” Meyers is in familiar territory here: cushy Santa Barbara digs, unspoken sense of privilege, many scenes of women talking.
Here she’s got Meryl Streep to hold the fort, which is something Meryl Streep knows how to do quite well. Duh, right? She plays Jane, successful restaurateur and divorced mother of three grown kids.
The source of the movie’s comedy is the ham-handed return of Jane’s ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), whose much younger second wife (Lake Bell) appears to be a shrew. But Jane is intrigued by her architect, Adam (Steve Martin), a man as quiet as Jake is boisterous.
Meyers manages to spin 118 minutes of amusement out of this tangle, much of which comes from Streep’s sense of illicit thrill (having an affair with her own ex-hubby?) and Baldwin’s greasy expression of manchild appetite.
Baldwin in particular is unbound, a description that extends to his willingness to put his chunky body on display for unclothed comic effect. Sometimes having the second helping of potatoes and skipping Pilates class can pay off in laughs.
Steve Martin is overshadowed by Baldwin for most of the picture, although this is part of the design. Meyers has Martin underplaying to the point of monotony in his early scenes, the better to set him up for a long, silly sequence that involves Jane and Adam sharing some pot and going to a party.
I know I should tsk-tsk the familiarity of the pot-smoking gag, but it works. It does suggest how Meyers relies on things that have worked for her before, including a close-re-working of the middle-age nudity scene from “Something Gotta Give.”
The movie is too cozy, and feels warmed-over. But Meyers is canny: In one sequence, for instance, Jane’s son-in-law, played by John Krasinski, learns about the affair, and his secret knowledge pays off in a half-dozen subsequent scenes.
“It’s Complicated” catches that giddy undercurrent often enough to justify its sitcom look and pokey forward motion. And if you like interior decoration, you’ve got it made.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
