It’s Complicated

I’m not a big fan of Nancy Meyer’s domestic piffles, where seemingly perfect middle-aged people, with gorgeous homes, flounder and fret for over two hours about manufactured “crises” with perfectly obvious solutions. This time out, we find the gorgeous, wealthy, successful fifty-something Jane (Meryl Streep) dabbling in an “affair,” with her ex-husband, Jake (Alec Baldwin). He’s remarried — to the hot young thing he left Jane for — which makes all this frisky later-in-life sex … uh … funny, I guess. (When cheating cheaters cheat …) Streep looks fabulous, and as in her recent comedic outings, seems to be having a good time. Baldwin plays his patented fast-talking charmer, and gets the film’s biggest laugh by taking his clothes off. The film’s other big laughs come when Jane and her date (Steve Martin) smoke some reefer — meaning this reputedly sophisticated comedy for adults goes for the teen-comedy paydirt of dropped trou and pothead pontificating. But mostly,  the movie burbles along through lots of pretty rooms, gardens, dinners and parties, and it’s never complicated: It’s just a bunch of mildly amusing surface noise that resolves easily and predictably. Starts Fri., Dec. 25.

This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2009.