it's complicated

it's complicated, is the latest product offered by auteur nancy meyers- the previous being "what women want", "the holiday", and "somethings gotta give". "it's complicated" is most comparable to the latter- in fact it's really the same movie- a successful middle-ager finds herself, despite herself, falling for a bloated self-centered, self-involved, and manipulative man after a long dry spell just as a better and devoted man steps up to her plate.  it's actually very simple and very one note.

i call this film a product because it is very well packaged- pretty people wearing pretty clothes in pretty sets, which is almost all i want in a movie, but this one is missing the one key ingredient, these pretty people need to be doing something interesting. here they don't-ever. and then meyers wraps this package up in a big red bow by force feeding us a very predictably boring ending.  if you've seen the trailer and any appearance on any talk show with clips then you've seen the best parts of this film. you really don't need to spend your money. it's too long, alec really really needs to drop at least 50 -100 lbs ( he  too convincingly plays someone eight years older than he ), and steve needs to stop playing the lovelorn sad sack.

the screenplay is missing the all important secondary plot line and leaves so much potential in the cast unmined. rita wilson, mary kay place, and alexandra wentworth play meryl's cheering section but are given nothing to do. john krasinski plays a future son-in law who unwittingly becomes a party to an affair between his divorced future in-laws and is just thrown in from time to time to get a guffaw. the friends have no lives or histories of their own to offer any interest or advice and krasinki's character was so poorly introduced i thought he was one of the kids for most of the film.

meryl streep looks beautiful, i love alec and he does a great job, as does steve.  there are laugh out loud moments but like i said if you own a tv- you've seen them.  a great cast, a good idea, meyers just dropped the ball by focusing all her energy on the one plot point, which is rarely enough to sustain a film for as long as she tries here.  meyers has found a niche market in the middle ager world.  it is nice seeing romantic comedies without any twenty year olds, or even thirty year olds. but she needs to develop another story line or go off to a retreat somewhere and purge herself of this one.  else in 2 years we'll see yet another version of this story starring michelle pfeiffer and william shatner with greg kinear as the devoted mr. right.