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Massawyrm says IT'S COMPLICATED isn't
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
The first thing one notes about IT’S COMPLICATED is that it really isn’t. It’s light, breezy, and isn’t the slightest bit hard to follow. The title of course refers to the social situation of the principle actress played by Meryl Streep who begins an affair with her remarried ex-husband just as she meets what might be the perfect man. If you can’t tell from the description that this is a movie made for the 45+ crowd then let me reinforce that now. Unlike director Nancy Meyer’s previous film THE HOLIDAY, IT’S COMPLICATED doesn’t reach very far across the generational comedy gap it is a film very much made for its audience and few else.
That said, for the type of film it is, it is quite cute. My wife and I both found it endearing, if a little flawed, but ultimately didn’t regret seeing it in the slightest. What makes it so watchable is no doubt the cast Meyer’s assembled for the key roles in the film opposite Streep. Playing her ex-husband and rekindled beau is Alec Baldwin who has found a new found fame by reinventing himself as a comedian, and he doesn’t disappoint here, playing a character very much his actual age who is struggling with his pining for the near-perfect life he once had while wrestling with having become the cliché of the divorced old guy with the hot young wife…while finding it increasingly hard to keep up. Steve Martin is the new beau who conversely does better these days in serious roles like this rather than his interminable comedies like this years PINK PANTHER 2. Here he’s the adorable, patient romantic constantly put on hold by Streep’s flirtation with getting back together with her ex.
Rounding out the cast is John Krasinski, who surprisingly comes out looking better than anyone else in the veteran cast. He plays the son-in-law who accidentally discovers the affair and tries desperately to keep everyone else, his wife especially, from finding out what is going on. It’s an old gag, but a good one and Krasinski nails it, breathing new life into what could have easily been a cheap, easy series of one note gags. He’s quite funny and adds a lot of life to some very tenuous moments.
The 40+ Midwest crowd is going to love this. It is for the most part well crafted, funny and charming in all the right ways. Meyers isn’t a fan of cheap gimmick comedy, so most of what you find here is solid character comedy whose only drawback is that it targets life experience that younger crowds simply will not be able to yet identify with.
If the film has one real flaw, it is that Meyers has crafted a female wish-fulfillment film that goes so far on occasion that you might cock your head to the side a little every once in a while. It’s one thing to have your principle live in a beautiful villa, have a successful business and three beautiful children. But we later discover that this is a seaside villa, the business is the hip, wildly successful shop of a master chef and the three beautiful children are so close and loving that during an emotional low point they end up in their pajamas in bed together having a god cry - even the brother. It’s all a bit much; not so much as to make the film ridiculous, but enough that after a while it adds up to being a bit unbelievable, especially for a film that wants to root itself in real world problems.
That said, Streep is Streep, meaning that she manages to keep the character grounded enough without floating off into the land of tinkling piano scores and overtly saccharine sentiments. Cute enough to be seen without embarrassment, but not enthralling enough to recommend to anyone who isn’t instantly excited by the trailer, this is a film you can pass on, but easily see and enjoy if you need to see a film with your folks. I’ve already called my mother and told her to see it, because she’s going to flip for it and then repeat the jokes to me later.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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KICKING AND SCREAMING ON SUNDAY!!!! It is Collateral to allow me to see Avatar in 3D.
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it's about the ambiance. and alec baldwin is some of the best when it comes to ambiance.
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to go see this movie? i suggest candy cigarettes. if you really wanna party.
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I haven't really liked his sour-puss-old-man-chasing-young-cooz personality since then.
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I want drugs. Is Alex Baldwin on drugs? Do you need drugs to watch this movie? If I take drugs and watch this movie, and DangerDave is in the same theatre on drugs will we both laugh at the same time because of drugs?It's complicated.
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as avatar. mark my words, you heard it here first.
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...that came up with this one?
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that your balls hang lower than your cock.
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...star in a bio-pic of himself.
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Dec 24, 2009 9:46:01 AM CST
...I don't understand why Steve Martin isn't in better movies...
by flickapoo
...he's a smart guy, his novels and New Yorker stuff is good...he should be carving his own path.A better path.
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I thought we were all virgins. Now I feel left out.
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For those to ogle well kept homes, and fully functional families and friends that love and support everything you do. Hey, if anything, its got to be 10 times better than Old Dogs or the latest Shawn Levy flick (which Martin knows all too well).
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...more so than the movie I'm sure.mmmmmmm....the copper bottom pot money shot....
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getting stoned on a little weed? That bit never gets old...
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or two of a joint, and they get sooo hiigghh!!! Giggle giggle..stare off in space..giggle giggle..
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...he's sort of turning into a big old queen. Which is cool, and funny...but odd.
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And from the midwest...Won't be seeing it. As an architect sitting through another stereotypical role rubs me the wrong way.
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Dec 24, 2009 11:01:32 AM CST
Flickapoo- have you seen Baldwin on Late Night w/Fallon?
by zombieheathledger
It's funny you should mention Baldwin as a big ol'queen, because he has come on that show in a segment called "Let Us Play With Your Look," where he plays this weird, gay, hairdresser/stylist. Will Farrel has done the character on there but Baldwin is better at it. From one 'borderline troll' to another, Mr. Pot.
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...I wish you very merry season's impalings.
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Dec 24, 2009 11:23:03 AM CST
Mr. Pot I could only find this one with Will Farrell doing it
by zombieheathledger
But picture Baldwin's fat ass in the same outfit. Farrel is just doing his Mugotu character from Zoolander but Baldwin was wayyy funnier in this sketch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c61ayXm0ngo
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i mean . . . what?! Really?
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With a global warming subtext
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Dec 24, 2009 12:33:12 PM CST
princiPAL, massa!!!! But it's ok, you aren't a twat like Capone
by manifestchaos
So nobody's going to hold it against you.
But this "female wish-fulfillment" aspect sounds pretty terrible. Then again, I'm way under 40 and I wasn't planning on seeing this anyway. (Though I thought if any rom-com would be worth seeing it'd be this one, given the cast.) -
...the cheap, shaky, phone quality + spotlight makes it seem a little weird and transgressive...like the old video in the attic of your parent's swinger party from 1981 that you desperately wish you hadn't found...
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Dec 24, 2009 12:43:23 PM CST
Uhhh, yeah, Mr. Pot, that's exactly what it's uhhh....like
by zombieheathledger
TMI, dude... T to the M.I., lol.
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Merry Christmas. http://tinyurl.com/l8rpcs
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...Alec Baldwin is great, but that creepy, shaky, back-room private-club quality really got me with the first one.I make it a rule not to spam friends with stuff, but that's going out to a few people...
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It kind of crept up on me gradually to realize that the formerly-fit Baldwin is getting pretty porky as of late. Up through the late 90s, he was still in shape, but he's gotten REALLY thick around the middle lately. I guess that's what TV does to movie actors...
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...where everyone gets crazy and does a "spontaneous" lip-synch singalong to an old Motown song on the soundtrack? At least The Holiday saved that excruciating cliche for the very last shot of the movie...
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Does no one else see this is true? The first movie my wife and I saw together was "What Women Want." That and "The Holiday" are 2 of my choices for the worst films of the decade.
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Funny stuff - thanks for that and Merry Christmas!
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Dec 24, 2009 2:37:46 PM CST
Adding Punctuation shouldn't be Complicated in a film review, ei
by reynard muldrake
But making sense of this more or less...
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on his blog. Jeez.
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"Playing her ex-husband and rekindled beau is Alec Baldwin who has found a new found fame by reinventing himself as a comedian, and he doesn’t disappoint here, playing a character very much his actual age who is struggling with his pining for the near-perfect life he once had while wrestling with having become the cliché of the divorced old guy with the hot young wife…while finding it increasingly hard to keep up." HOLY SHIT, there's a lot of bad writing on this site, but i think that sentence just took the turkey. at least massa doesn't pepper every review with "fail" and "win" references anymore... but fuck...
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Seeing Streep and Martin act high was good. Baldwin was funny. Dude from The Office played the straight man. My only complaint is that Martin had very little screen time by comparison. It was about Streep and Baldwin the whole way. Based on the preview I figured the movie was a date flick for a Mormon chick or your grandmothers bingo group. Wasn't actually that bad. Glad I got in for free.
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Everything in her movies is perfect, designed within an inch of its life, a reflection of rich middle-aged white people, and completely unreal. Streep is at least 10 years older than Baldwin, which makes this "rekindled romance" even more unbelievable. Something's Gotta Give was equally false and unreal (Keaton's character leaves Keanu Reeves' character for JACK NICHOLSON'S character - and HE wants HER too?!), but at least Diane Keaton saved the film. This seems utterly ridiculous. I'll buy Martha's mag instead - it's probably more entertaining.
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I do agree Meyers does this whole Martha Stewart fantasy thing of having everyone have a REALLY GREAT HOUSE with wonderful sheets and cookware, as if these things were what "real people owned." That's false. But what, pray tell, is so damn false about a man wanting a woman older than him?? Or a woman being interested in something other than looks or age?
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I don't know what she does in her personal life, but her movies are all sh*t. At least if you have a brain and a weiner, they are not for you.
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Whatever happened to the movie adaptation that was happening of this? I thought Martin's Shopgirl was an able, if slightly underwhelming film, and had always been interested in seeing him bring this play to the big screen. Seems like efforts for that have fallen off, and Martin seems content to just be getting work these days, whatever it is.
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Go read Chud's (yes, I went there) review on it. I have no opinion on this film but I thought this was funny: http://chud.com/articles/articles/21957/1/REVIEW-IT039S-COMPLICATED/Page1.html
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But Streep is less than 9 years older than Baldwin. He turned 51 this spring, she turned 60 this summer.
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you see in a dozen TV sitcoms.
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Is he actually playing a character or just doing Jim? The one shot of him in the trailer shows him making the patented "Jim Face" during an awkward moment. In the documentary on Series One of the UK "Office" Martin Freeman talked about how hard it was to break that habit of making the "Tim Face" and that he caught himself doing it all the time.
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Sorry about that sentence. That's what I get for writing my review in the car and not properly copy editing after. That sentence - and the review as a whole- is a shame I will have to live with. My apologies.
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now i feel like a dickhead on christmas. THANKS A LOT YOU BIG JERK.
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Who cares how old Streep and Baldwin are in real life? In the movie they both look and play the same age believably. But with 60year old actors constantly bedding 20year old actresses in movies, it is ridiculous to get uptight about Streep being somewhat older than Baldwin.
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