Rating: 5/10

Writer:: Nancy Meyers
Director: Nancy Meyers
Cast: Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Lake Bell
Studio: Universal Pictures

Perhaps when I am a post-menopausal divorcee, I will revisit IT’S COMPLICATED and find more to be appreciated. Maybe then I will have experienced the successes of Meryl Streep’s Jane and can understand that a successful business, well-adjusted and accomplished children, a beautiful home, and supportive friends are not enough to make one happy. Not if there are two would-be suitors pursuing you. IT’S COMPLICATED offers a self-satisfying look into the life of a middle-aged woman and though the central theme is a clever one, this film has limited appeal.

A contemporary story, set in Santa Barbara, IT’S COMPLICATED certainly defies the Hollywood assumption that a woman over 40 cannot be an object of desire. Jane (Meryl Streep), an empty-nester somewhere in her 50s, is pursued by her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) who left her 10 years prior for a woman 20 years her junior. Jane owns a successful patisserie and despite her oft alluded to regular visits to an analyst, her biggest troubles seem to come from her completely unnecessary kitchen remodeling project (her home looks as though it was ripped from the pages of Martha Stewart Living or Better Homes and Gardens). Her three kids are off living their own lives; her youngest daughter just left for college, her middle son is about to graduate, and her eldest daughter is planning her wedding.  Writer/director Nancy Meyer takes us on a journey through the life and times of a women who seemingly has it all, but can’t see the forest for the trees.

Jane feels alone. This is exacerbated by a family trip to New York, to witness her son’s graduation. As the kids are out celebrating, Jane and Jake have a few drinks in the hotel bar. In a drunken state, the two end up sharing a bed and Jake admits that he misses Jane after all these years. The last thing I want to think about people is my parents’ age having sex. I know it happens, but as I watched IT’S COMPLICATED, a singular thought kept running through my head, “Ew, old people doing it.” And that was before the obligatory Nancy Meyers middle-aged nudity scene. But the film has more to offer than a few over the hill actors getting their jollies. Jane is in any scorned lover’s dream scenario, the return of the one that got away.

Jane and Jake’s rekindling romance plays out as a series of over-the-top antics and campy situations. Baldwin is hilarious as Jake, but his character doesn’t do much to illustrate what Jane has been missing. He is charming and funny, yes, but his interest in Jane is extremely self-serving. He misses her food and other comforts of home, but mostly it seems like Jake is looking from escape from his problems, which may or may not be a repeat of what happened with Jane. His young career-minded  wife Agness (Lake Bell), who already has a 5 year old son, is pushing him to have another child through forced visits to the fertility clinic. Jane even runs into the couple on one such visit as she is on her way out of a medical building where she has gone to consult with a plastic surgeon.

The plot is cute and clever, but everything (including the characters) is very generalized and overbroad. You never get the feeling that these people or events could exist in the real world. After years of dealing with heartache and being self-sufficient, one would assume that Jane would be more skeptical and aware of the fact that Jake is using her.  Instead, she runs to her analyst and gaggle of girlfriends who do nothing but encourage her to get hers despite having been in that very same situation with the same man.

All the while, Jane and Jake’s children are oblivious as to what is going on. The children are cookie cutter perfect as if they just leapt out of a GAP ad.  The only one who has any inkling of what is going on is Jane’s eldest daughter’s fiancé, Harley (John Krasinski).  He sees Jane and Jake arrive for a rendezvous at a hotel while there to meet a wedding planner. Another situation that seems too coincidental to actually happen in real life.

Just as things are heating up with Jake, a shy, reserved architect tasked with working on the kitchen remodel named Adam (Steve Martin) expresses his interest in Jane. Thus putting her in a position to choose between two men; the love of her life and someone who has an understanding of her pain as Adam is also coping with a divorce of his own.  The character of Adam is one of the major failures of the film, as it is a tragic misuse of funnyman Steve Martin. He is so vanilla and boring that it is easy for Baldwin to upstage Martin.

Speaking of upstaging, it is the comedy itself that is upstaged by the actors in this film. It is often the characters in the scenes who react to the comedy as if they are having more fun than the audience, thus adding to the feeling that you are watching something that is not real.

IT’S COMPLICATED plays out like an overlong sitcom that is missing the laugh track.  Though Meryl Streep offers a consistent performance and radiates from the screen, it is her character that is lacking. If you are a fan of Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, there is much to be appreciated but it isn’t enough to save a weak story that has little semblance of reality.