It's complicated; Romantic comedy, USA, 2009; D: Nancy Meyers, S: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, Lake Bell, John Krasinski
Middle-aged Jane, who works in a bakery, got divorced from her husband Jake 10 years ago who is now married to the much younger Agnes. While staying in New York to attend the graduation of her child, Jane and Jake bump into each other at a bar. After drinking and joking around too much, they land in bed. Returning back to her home, Jane keeps her „affair“ with her ex Jake a secret from their grown up three kids. At the same time, she starts dating Adam, her new architect, which complicates matters even more. Finally, Jake ends his relationship with Agnes to be with Jane, but she rejects him and continues seeing Adam.
Even though it had a soap opera premise and could have turned out potentially really cheap, thanks to Nancy Meyers directing abilities and sense for romance, humorous drama “It’s Complicated” turned out to be a much better film than the first sight might reveal. A lot of praise goes to the charming actors, especially Alec Baldwin who was even nominated as best supporting actor for a BAFTA, and the untypical Steve Martin in a rather more serious edition, though he also brings his classic comic spark here and there to make the story more colorful. Meryl Streep already won numerous awards as best dramatic actress in her career, but somehow it will be hard to forget her in so many completely opposite, charmingly humorous scenes in this film, such as the one where her character Jane runs away half-naked from bed to the toilet cowering her naked butt with a pillow or the one where, after intercourse, the couple is lying in bed and her ex, the satisfied Jake, puts his hand between her legs and just says nostalgically: “Home sweet home!” The quadrilateral love relationship between the 4 protagonists because the 2 of ex-lovers decided to go back to each other is refreshingly optimistic, positive and pleasant, proving that light entertainment doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The film set out to be just a fun, good piece of romantic comedy without any pretensions and achieves that perfectly.
Middle-aged Jane, who works in a bakery, got divorced from her husband Jake 10 years ago who is now married to the much younger Agnes. While staying in New York to attend the graduation of her child, Jane and Jake bump into each other at a bar. After drinking and joking around too much, they land in bed. Returning back to her home, Jane keeps her „affair“ with her ex Jake a secret from their grown up three kids. At the same time, she starts dating Adam, her new architect, which complicates matters even more. Finally, Jake ends his relationship with Agnes to be with Jane, but she rejects him and continues seeing Adam.
Even though it had a soap opera premise and could have turned out potentially really cheap, thanks to Nancy Meyers directing abilities and sense for romance, humorous drama “It’s Complicated” turned out to be a much better film than the first sight might reveal. A lot of praise goes to the charming actors, especially Alec Baldwin who was even nominated as best supporting actor for a BAFTA, and the untypical Steve Martin in a rather more serious edition, though he also brings his classic comic spark here and there to make the story more colorful. Meryl Streep already won numerous awards as best dramatic actress in her career, but somehow it will be hard to forget her in so many completely opposite, charmingly humorous scenes in this film, such as the one where her character Jane runs away half-naked from bed to the toilet cowering her naked butt with a pillow or the one where, after intercourse, the couple is lying in bed and her ex, the satisfied Jake, puts his hand between her legs and just says nostalgically: “Home sweet home!” The quadrilateral love relationship between the 4 protagonists because the 2 of ex-lovers decided to go back to each other is refreshingly optimistic, positive and pleasant, proving that light entertainment doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The film set out to be just a fun, good piece of romantic comedy without any pretensions and achieves that perfectly.
Grade:++
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