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

(500) Days of Summer

It kinds of pains me to say this, but I have a special feeling for a select few romantic comedies, particularly ones that fall into the category of "chick flicks." Legally Blonde is one. Mean Girls, I suppose, would count. And the one that pains me the most, because it is so cheesy and weepy, Where the Heart Is. There, I said it.

Well, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Luckily, (500) Days of Summer, a film Kinsey and I saw this weekend, isn't as thoroughly lowbrow as the previously mentioned movies. The concept seems to be (guy meets girl, cheesy jokes, a large quantity of quirk) but this film is very self-aware and, when taken in context, all these rom-com cliches come together in a highly entertaining movie watching experience.

Early on, the film introduces us to Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Summer (pun!) played by Zooey Deschanel. They both work at a greeting card company and the film takes us on a non-linear ride of their 500 day relationship, showing their good times, bad times, and how they fall apart.

As Kinsey said as we were leaving the theater, (500) Days of Summer is really an amalgam of a bunch of different stuff we've already seen in other movies. There's talking head interviews, split screens, winking at the camera, a dance sequence in the park, the advice-giving little sister, really nothing that we haven't seen before. But you have to give credit to first time director Marc Webb for being able to bring all this together into something entertaining.

The real strong point of the film is the two leads. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel really bring a sizzle to their on-screen relationship and are definitely two actors who I would love to see play opposite each other again. Gordon-Levitt especially is an actor who draws me to any movie he's in (but will that entice me to see him as Cobra Commander in the new G.I. Joe film? no, probably not).

Overall, (500) Days of Summer is a really good if not great film. It definitely had me laughing.

Wade: 4/5 stars

Kinsey: 4/5 stars