REVIEW: It's Complicated

Plot synopsis for It's Complicated from moviefone.com:

Writer/director Nancy Meyers ('Something's Gotta Give,' 'The Holiday') directs Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin in 'It's Complicated,' a comedy about love, divorce and everything in between.

Jane (Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery/restaurant and has--after a decade of divorce--an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son's college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together turns into the unimaginable--an affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.

Caught in the middle of their renewed romance is Adam (Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane's kitchen. Healing from a divorce of his own, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he's become part of a love triangle.

Should Jane and Jake move on with their lives, or is love truly lovelier the second time around? It's...complicated.

One thing in particular nagged at me throughout the entirety of this movie: the false reality that writer/director Nancy Meyers creates. Sure, Streep's character Jane owns a thriving bakery, but is that enough to afford a million dollar addition to her already multi-million dollar home? And this addition is for the kitchen of her dreams because, apparently, the one with the two stoves and seating for six isn't enough. It looks like a Williams and Sonoma ad. In fact, the whole movie feels like an ad for luxury goods. Everyone is stylishly dressed (and, of course, super good-looking), driving luxury cars or hybrids, it was just way too much to have to swallow.

The saving grace of this movie is Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, specifically Alec Baldwin (Streep has a couple weird "giggly" moments). But Baldwin is winning and charismatic and, this might have something to do with my love of 30 Rock, hilarious. These two have amazing chemistry together. Given the convincing attraction between Baldwin and Streep, it was a stretch to believe that Jane would see anything in Adam, Steve Martin's character, who is a complete nerd. Martin and Streep's on-screen time falls completely flat.

The movie does have a few hilarious moments and some great one-liners. But it's mostly full of dumb jokes that go on too long (let's have Meryl Streep and Steve Martin smoke pot!) and throwaway gags (let's put John Krasinski in a pre-teen girl's pajamas!). Also there are these odd "we're having a good time" montages full of sap. Overall, despite a few laughs, this is not a movie I would recommend seeing.

(I'm going to go on an architecture rant before I finish here. I've seen about a half dozen films featuring characters who are architects and they all have a hard time getting it right. This movie, with Steve Martin's character as the architect, is no exception. Movies always try to glamorize architects when we're not that glamorous. I have a hard time believing that an architect designing single-family homes is going to drive a high-end Mercedes. Or that he is going to need a staff of 30 (in a brick loft, of course), all of them hand-drafting (hand-drafting!!). The kicker to all this is when Adam shows up to Jane's ill-conceived kitchen addition with a roll of drawings big enough to build a mixed-use complex in Shengxen. Attention to detail is not this movie's strong suit. OK, rant over.)

Wade: 2/5 stars
Kinsey: 2/5 stars