The movie is filled with a lot of honesty. It touches on so many topics divorced and most other women and men struggle with.
It’s Complicated is a comedy about the hilarious events surrounding a couple who are suddenly attracted to each other again, ten years after their divorce. Meryl Streep plays Jane, a woman who is incredibly accomplished. She’s raised three children, owns her own bakery/café, and lives in a beautiful home with a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean. Alec Baldwin plays Jake, an attorney who’s remarried to a much younger woman named Agness (played by Lake Bell) who resembles a super model. His very young wife wants another baby and is dragging him to a fertility clinic. But she can’t hold a candle to Jane’s warmth and femininity, which seems to cause Jake to question the choice he’s made to remarry and start another family. After having too much to drink while celebrating their youngest child’s graduation from college, Jane and Jake end up in bed. When they wake up, Jane is questioning her sanity while Jake is completely smitten. That’s when it gets complicated.
There’s actually one more wrinkle. For the first time in years, Jane is interested in another man, Adam. And Adam, played by Steve Martin, is interested in Jane! Let me tell you, this love triangle feels like sweet revenge to any woman whose spouse or boyfriend has left them for a newer or prettier model.
Seeing Meryl Streep as vivacious and attractive as she is at age 60 feels like a sweet victory for women everywhere. Don’t believe the saying “Sixty is the New Forty?” Take a good long look at Ms. Streep. Once again, the talented Ms. Streep wows us with her acting. She simply becomes the character. It was fun watching her cook again in this movie, too, given her recent role as Julia Child in Julie and Julia, which I adored.
Alec Baldwin’s comic timing and facial expressions are brilliant. It’s wonderful to see him really embrace his comic side (like he does here and in 30 Rock) after doing serious films like The Hunt for Red October earlier in his career. He’s not afraid to bare almost all either, which makes the movie real, but also very funny. Do men ever worry about what they look like? John Krasinksi, who plays Jane’s and Jake’s future son-in-law, also has flawless comic timing. (I loved him in Away We Go, a movie I reviewed in 2009!)
I saw It’s Complicated with my 19–year-old godson who also loved it. The movie was eerily autobiographical for me since Meryl Streep’s character had been divorced for 10 years and had, in her words, “finally figured out how to do this,” meaning enjoy her life as a single woman. Same goes for me!
The movie is filled with a lot of honesty. It touches on so many topics divorced, and most other women and men, struggle with—like aging, wondering if you’re still attractive to the opposite sex, building a great life for yourself without a partner, worrying about whether you’ll ever date again…and then once you’ve “figured it all out” worrying that someone else will come along and mess it all up.
It’s Complicated is a fun, original, smart, sassy romantic comedy. Watch it! I think you’ll agree.
