Movie Summary of It’s Complicated by Michael The Moviegoer.
IT’S COMPLICATED = **
“Not Really”
There is a single moment in “It’s Complicated” that is so uproariously funny it will certainly become an iconic classic comedy moment along the same lines as those now-iconic singular moments in “There’s Something About Mary” and “When Harry Met Sally”. If you know the scenes I’m thinking of from those movies, then you’ll understand what I mean. I won’t spoil it by describing it. But it involves a video chat on a laptop computer.
That scene comes near the end of “It’s Complicated” and is sure to be talked about to the point where everyone will want to see it. And for that one big laugh, it’s probably worth sitting through the rest of this average movie. But you’ll end up wishing the whole movie was as funny as that one scene.
The movie’s plot is that Meryl Streep is divorced from Alec Baldwin who is now married to a much younger woman. But after being divorced for ten years, they decide to have an affair. A triangle evolves as Steve Martin begins to fall for Streep.
Writer/Director Nancy Meyers’ films always come wrapped in attractive packaging (“Something’s Gotta Give”) and usually arrive in theatres around the Christmas holidays (“The Holiday”). They look so sparkly and shiny underneath the tree (the previews). But once we open them and spend two hours playing with them, we usually store it away under the stairs or deep inside a storage closet hoping never to see them again.
There’s nothing really bad about Meyers’ movies. They qualify as entertainment. But like her previous directorial efforts, “It’s Complicated” has the look of a laundry detergent TV commercial. Every scene is brightly lit, vividly colorful and sharply in focus. Even in a scene requiring the actors to perform in a downpour of rain, the trees and flowers in the background are clearly enjoying the sunshine. Never has a rain machine been more obvious.
Then there’s Meyers’ strange choice of music. Her film is set in 2009, but during a party scene at the home of her 20-something daughter, a DJ is spinning Leo Sayer’s cheesey 1976 disco hit “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”. Meyers seems to be just generally out of touch with current pop culture. Thankfully, she knows how to video chat on a laptop.
I’m sure that many of you will want to see this movie, and some will probably enjoy it. Perhaps, in time, I will consider it to be a guilty pleasure of my own. But it still has the emotional depth of a feather. What more can you expect from a film that takes it’s title from a Facebook relationship status update?
DVD Double Feature: Another silly romantic comedy involving internet communication is Nora Ephron’s “You’ve Got Mail” from 1998. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are having a chatty email affair despite both being in relationships with others. It’s a cute little time-waster. But it’s interesting to note how dated the film has become in only 10 years. Everytime they go to check their email we hear that old dial-up modem sound. That was only 10 years ago?
Michael The Moviegoer
