It's Complicated
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Directed by: Nancy Meyers
Starring: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski
Rating: 7.5/10
IT is indeed complicated: Jake (Baldwin), a divorced lawyer, is remarried to a younger wife (Lake Bell) with whom he has a five-year-old son. Yet he still feels affectionate towards his ex-wife, Jane (Streep) more than 20 years after they split.
When they meet again in a hotel bar the night before attending the graduation of their youngest son, Jake and Jane hook-up and become embroiled in a full-blown affair.
Jane is lonely now that her grown-up kids have finally moved out to make lives for themselves and clearly all is not well on the home-front for Jake. His aggressive younger wife - who has already cheated on him before returning to the fold - wants a child with him and has packed him off to a fertility clinic for regular tests.
This is a well-written,very entertaining romantic comedy which deserves several gold stars for focussing on an age group generally neglected in mainstream film. It's worth getting along to the film just to check out the broad cross-section of the audience...
The delicious premise of a woman having an affair with her ex-husband paves the way for lots of fun.
Steve Martin plays Jane's architect, Adam, who is himself recovering from a painful divorce and is now cautiously looking for love. Ironically despite his comic pedigree (he's worked before with director Meyers on the Father of Bride series), Martin plays it relatively straight in this role, in which he is sympathetically cast as Jane's tentative suitor.
Less kind critics might question what Jane is supposed to see in her by now well-upholstered and somewhat inconsistent ex. Indeed judging by the muttered advice being given from some in the audience, they may number a few.
The script takes the road less travelled in reaching its conclusion and is the better for it. En route, there's a couple of priceless scenes, including an unfortunately timed Skype video call in which one of the love rivals sees a lot more of his opponent than he'd ever have wished...
It's Complicated is showing at Vue Cinema. See www.myvue.com for full listings and screening times.
