It's Complicated

I will admit that I did have a small bias against It's Complicated (IC) before sitting down to watch it yesterday. IC is made by the same filmmaker that made Something's Gotta Give (SGG), one of the surprise hits of 2003 that I really did not enjoy. But I said to myself that this was a different movie with different actors and convinced myself to keep my mind open to the possibility that this would be a different experience.

It wasn't.

The plot of IC is pretty straightforward: a fiftysomething woman, played by Meryl Streep, begins a torrid affair with her ex-husband, played by Alec Baldwin. They try to figure out what their hooking up means, why they are enjoying it so much, and whether or not it means they want to get back together. In the interim Streep takes a liking to the architect of her house remodeling, played by one of my favorite actors, Steve Martin.

You may wonder what my major objections to IC are. That is also straightforward: I'm not a woman. I'm not middle aged. I'm not White. I'm not rich. I'm not married. I'm not divorced. I'm not the child of a divorced household. I'm not a parent. I don't live in California. I don't have a "Sex and the City" type group of girlfriends. And I don't have unresolved ex issues. Other than that, I related to this movie on every level.

Basically, I'm not the demographic for this movie. And I'm ok with that. My mom poked fun at me when we talked about the movie afterwards; she thought that I should lighten up and just enjoy the humor and the movie experience. But at some point in every movie I need something, anything, that I can somewhat relate to or identify with in order to be even remotely engaged in the movie. And when I don't get that, I just can't enjoy the movie.

I guess my other issue is that I felt like the movie relied on really played out cliches to keep the plot going, such as the "gotta tell my girlfriends about my love life" scenes or the "mom and kids have a teary-eyed heart to heart talk" scene or the always hilarious (being sarcastic) "older people try to recapture their Free Love youth by smoking weed" scene. Notice how all these scenes sound like their from SGG? That shouldn't be. If I wanted that feeling from a movie, I'd just watch SGG instead of IC. And while IC doesn't really follow the all-too-familiar "romantic comedy" formula (would take too much time to explain here, but at some point I'll probably have to lay that one out), it's so close that it feels as familiar as those tired movies. I'm pretty sure you'll know how this one ends before you get there, and that is never a good thing.

And my disappointment was compounded because I was excited about the cast. Meryl Streep is a unanimous first-ballot acting hall of famer, if such a thing existed. But as I thought about it, Streep is no more effective in IC than Diane Keaton was in SGG, so I kept asking "what did she bring to the movie that any other actress of her age wouldn't have?" I couldn't figure it out, and that saddened me cause she is so good. Baldwin is usually pretty funny, and to be fair, he is in this film; he is the only actor to bring charm and genuine hilarity to this movie. And of course I think Steve Martin is always comic gold, or at least I did. Unfortunately, he is sorely and surprisingly underutilized (really only has about 5 quality scenes in the movie). The little of him you get is some of his recycled comedy from previous films.

Ultimately, if you liked SGG then you'll like IC. I didn't like either, but a part of me wants to watch these films in about 2 decades to see if my life experience will help me better relate to them. Until then, my relationship with these films will be . . . well . . . you know . . . complicated . . . (ending on a horrible pun - I'm ashamed of myself).