Movie 99: It’s Complicated

Jane (Meryl Streep) is divorced from Jake (Alec Baldwin). He’s remarried, but she’s kind of lonely. On a trip to see one of their kids graduate the two end up spending an evening together and hooking up. They then have an affair, but things are further complicated as a nice guy, Adam (Steve Martin) her architect, starts being an option for Jane.

I am 20 years too young and have too much of a penis for this movie.

That said, it wasn’t a horrendous watch. And not for the reasons I expected either. Meryl’s character is fine, she’s a bit shallow and silly but the fact is you never really grow out of that. I didn’t expect her to draw me in really anyway as I can’t identify with a 50+ year old woman. I did expect to get a few laughs out of Baldwin’s character though.

I didn’t. He’s a shit. He’s a slimy, creepy, controlling asshole who wants his cake and everyone elses cake too. He just oozes greasy. Think his character from 30 Rock, but badly written and without any charm. That’s Jake. You could empathise with him if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s so damned selfish.

John Krasinski from the office is one of the reasons to see this. He’s not given a hell of a lot to do, but he’s good in every scene that he shows up in. He’s kind of playing another version of Jim but that’s okay. He’s not the surprise though.

Steve Martin is the surprise. He’s not amazingly brilliant, but he is damned good and Adam is the most likeable character in the film. He’s not quite correctly written either, there’s a twisted bit that felt very much like it was written by a woman that doesn’t quite get nice guys. By twisted I don’t mean that he’s in to whips, I mean a plot twist. But he’s a genuinely likeable character, he’s funny and he’s charming. THIS is the kind of role that Martin should be playing more now, though in better written movies.

That surprise aside, and Jim, unless you’re a middle aged divorcee you should probably just leave this one alone. It’s not complicated, though it’s not TOO formulaic towards the end, and its not all that well written.

Next up: Dead Snow. ZOMBIE NAZIS!