It's Complicated

Take Something's Gotta Give (which also happens to be directed by romantic comedy veteran Nancy Meyers) swap Diane Keaton for Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson for Alec Baldwin, throw in a token younger woman, some empty-nester's sexual frustration and – ta da! – you've got yourself the makings of an oldies' rom com hit. 

Jane (Meryl Streep) watched her adulterer ex-husband Jack (Alec Baldwin) take off with his former twenty-something mistress, Agness (Lake Bell), some ten years back, but on the eve of their son's university graduation it appears they still have "unfinished business". Jane's simultaneous courtship with her fellow divorcee architect, Adam (Steve Martin), makes the resulting affair all the more salacious. Naturally, the typical series of hilarious but somewhat unrealistic comical scenarios follows.

Meyers' creation of a casually sophisticated setting (think picturesque neighbourhoods and well-clad characters as in her previous work The Holiday) is once again achieved in this idyllic Santa Barbara locale, and you can't help but find the characters' effortless family banter charming. Streep and Baldwin have great on-screen chemistry that is mostly pleasant to watch, apart from some cringeworthy semi-nude scenes – note the strategic cover-up of Baldwin's unmentionables by a very unfortunate lap top computer. Martin plays a surprisingly subdued version of his usual slapstick self, but the film is saved by the talented Streep in the leading role, lending the otherwise formulaic screenplay a level of credibility.

Without getting too feminist about it, the story's undercurrent is pretty damn sexist; the egocentric male, disappointed with his former mistress/new wife's career-focused lifestyle, rejoices in a comforting affair with his maternal, time-rich and lonely ex-wife, with ex-wifey quick to indulge his childish needs. Jane's eagerness to nurse Jack through a brief illness and prepare his favourite comfort foods is nothing short of sickening.

Subliminal messages aside, placing the spotlight on three middle-aged characters is a refreshing break from the typical love triangle of twenty-somethings. If you feel like watching a handful of senior silver screeners getting it on, then this is the movie for you. Just try not to be haunted by Baldwin's triumphant crotch-grabbing exclamation – "Home, sweet home!" – in his first post-coital appearance with Streep. Yuck.

Extras: The making of It's Complicated.

 

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