It’s Complicated: Just Misses the Mark

What a great cast, I remember thinking when I first saw the advertisement for Its Complicated. First off, you can hardly go wrong with Meryl Streep. Second, Steve Martin is usually good for a laugh if nothing else. Add in Rita Wilson and John Krasinski, and there should be nothing stopping this movie from at least comedic success. And it is very funny. I, along with the rest of the audience, laughed heartily more than a couple of times. I covered my mouth and muttered “oh my goodness” several times as well. It’s just…not quite perfect.

What is stopping the film from being completely pleasing, you might ask? Alec Baldwin. Let me set up the story a bit. Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin play Jane and Jake Adler. They have three grown children and have been divorced for ten years. When they end up at their son’s graduation, something happens between them that makes then think there might still be something there. Meryl Streep does a great job at portraying a woman who is confused about her feelings but tired of feeling guilty about every decision she makes. Their kids, especially future son-in-law John Krasinski, are real, believable and endearing characters. Steve Martin plays Jane’s architect, and presents a romantic alternative to her ex-husband. He’s just a bit too nice to be likable, but he does his job, which is to make Baldwin’s character jealous.

The story is set up so we kind of want the married couple to work things out, to get back together and be happy. I want to resent Steve Martin’s presence in their lives, I want to hate Jake’s new, young, snotty wife (Lake Bell). I really want to, but I just don’t. I don’t because Alec Baldwin’s character, Jake, is a complete tool. Seriously, I don’t know if that’s how the character is written or if Baldwin added the whiny baby nature to the guy on his own, but all I could think from the beginning was that Jane is better off without the man. He obviously misses her taking care of him more than anything else. He misses her cooking, the way she watches his diet, and the way she takes care of the household around him. We never really get that he actually misses anything about her at all, like the way she always wanted to open her own bakery, loves to garden or is a great mother. Things that might matter. Everything that comes out of his mouth is annoying and whiny. I couldn’t have an affair with the guy because I would’ve kicked him off the barstool next to me after the first idiotic line. All this does is make me not care about whether they decide to get back together or not. Which isn’t good, because as a member of the audience, it should be the filmmakers goal to have me emotionally involved.

That said, the comedy really is great. Meryl Streep’s comedic timing is flawless and Steve Martin has made a career out of funny moments. This film has some great ones, both physical and dialogue driven. Jane and Jake attempts at hiding their affair are amusing, as is the scene when they get busted by their soon to be son-in-law at a hotel. Perhaps the best laughs come from an incident with a web-cam. I’ll leave it at that, I don’t want to spoil the scene and I couldn’t do it justice anyhow. The bottom line here is a good cast and a fun story that doesn’t quite tug the heartstrings like I wish it would have. It’s worth seeing, and I’d honestly be sorry if you missed some of the laughs it offers, but it’s a wait for video recommendation from me. There are a boatload of sexual references, obviously, as well as nudity, drinking, and illegal drug make my kid recommendation fifteen or older.

For Additonal Poptimal reviews of read It’s Complicated: Old People Love…Yikes by Renata Sellitti