Rating: R
Starring:
Meryl Streep as Jane
Steve Martin as Adam
Alec Baldwin as Jake
John Krasinski as Harley
Lake Bell as Agness
Mary Kay Place as Joanne
Rita Wilson as Trisha
Alexandra Wentworth as Diane
Hunter Parrish as Luke
Zoe Kazan as Gabby
Caitlin Fitzgerald as Lauren
Emjay Anthony as Pedro
Nora Dunn as Sally
Bruce Altman as Ted
Robert Curtis Brown as Peter
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Special Features:
The Making of: It’s Complicated
Feature Commentary with Producer/Writer/Director Nancy Meyers, Executive Producer Suzanne Farwell, Director of Photography John Toll, ASC and Editor Joe Hutshing, ACE
My Scenes
BD Live
pocket BLU App
Other Info:
Widescreen (1.85:1)
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Dolby Digital Stereo Sound
French and Spanish Languages
Running Time: 2 Hours 1 Minute
The Details:
The following is the official description of the film:
“Two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin star in this hilarious look at marriage, divorce and everything in between. Jane (Streep) has three grown kids, a thriving Santa Barbara bakery and an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin). Now, a decade after their divorce, an innocent dinner between Jane and Jake turns into the unimaginable – an affair. Caught in the middle of their rekindled romance are Jake’s young wife and Adam (Martin), a recently divorced architect who starts to fall for Jane. Could love be sweeter the second time around? It’s complicated!”
“It’s Complicated” is rated R for some drug content and sexuality.
Mini-Review:
I had a few problems with “It’s Complicated.” First of all, the basic premise is hard to buy. We’re expected to believe that Jane would be infatuated with Jake, the ex-husband who cheated on her and married his mistress. Most divorced women I know would prefer to castrate their ex rather than have an affair with him. She repeatedly sleeps with him and revels in the fact that she’s got him back. While revenge against ‘the other woman’ might be a believable motivation for her actions, that’s not the focus of this film.
Nancy Meyers also inadvertently makes Jane an unsympathetic character for the audience. Every time she covertly meets with Jake, you’re thinking, “Don’t do it!” Yet she does anyway. She even goes to a therapist to get his blessing, of a sort, for her actions. He basically tells her, “If it feels good, do it.” You keep wondering when she’s going to wake up, but she doesn’t until it’s too late.
Then there’s Jake. He’s not much of a catch. He’s a slime ball. He parades around trying to act like he’s 30 years younger than he is. He has the art of cheating down to a science. You’d think seeing Jake roll out his old bag of tricks would have turned off Jane, but it doesn’t. This makes the audience say, “What’s wrong with her?” rather than sympathizing with her.
I also must admit that Steve Martin was a major reason for me wanting to see this movie. He’s barely in it. And most of his scenes feature him getting stoned with Meryl Streep as Jane. They actually smoke a joint together and then spend a significant portion of the movie acting goofy. I have to say that was another ding against the movie for me. It made Jane seem stupid. It also makes writer/director Nancy Meyers and Universal Studios look incredibly irresponsible for glorifying or at least trivializing drug use.
On the positive side, the cast is strong. I think if Jane would have been played by any other actress than Meryl Streep, then this movie would have been barely tolerable. And to Alec Baldwin’s credit, he makes the slime ball Jake watchable. I’m a fan of John Krasinski from “The Office,” so it was fun seeing him stuck in the middle of the situation as the hapless future son-in-law.
I’m really not sure who to recommend this movie to. It’s not really a strong romantic comedy, so it’s not a movie for couples. And divorced people will probably want to strangle the main characters. Young people won’t be engaged by it, so that pretty much leaves just major fans of Streep and Baldwin. I think you might have better luck with another movie altogether.
This Blu-ray is pretty light on bonus features. You’ll only find a ‘making of’ featurette and a commentary that none of the cast participate in. It also has the ‘pocket BLU,’ ‘social BLU,’ and ‘BD Live’ features, but these aren’t really main draws for me, personally. I’d be interested to hear in the comments section if anyone really uses those online bonus features.
