It’s not all that complicated: Jane Adler (Meryl Streep) begins an affair with ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin), who left her for a hot young thing a decade ago, while starting a fresh romance with architect Adam (Steve Martin). Jane’s friends cheer her on, while her children – now all grown up – sit on the sidelines.
That’s all there is to Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated, and if I told you who Jane ends up with at the end there’d be little reason to see the movie. It’s a cross between Meyer’s usual fluffy rom-coms (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday) with a more mature, introspective story; it succeeds as neither, ensuring that the film appeals to a very small audience.
Jane is a successful owner of a bakery, romantically wanting, building a new addition to her home, which Adam is heading up. Ex-husband Jake has apparently had enough with his (relatively) new wife Agness (Lake Bell), who wants another kid and has him visit the fertility clinic twice a week. He’s ready to return home, and gets an opportunity when he and Jane have a few too many drinks over dinner while in New York for their son’s college graduation.
“Oh no! What have I done!” Jane exclaims the next morning. Well, she’s had an affair with her ex-husband, who is now married to another woman, a woman who did the same thing to Jane years ago. Few of us, I think, are that committed to the institution of marriage to see much conflict here, but there’s your movie in a nutshell.
The kids, certainly, have a problem with it. A son, two daughters and a son-in-law (John Krasinski) clutter the screen for the majority of the running time. I was wondering why all these extraneous characters were here, but then there’s that big scene in which the affair is revealed and everyone gets all upset, for reasons unknown to me. Manufactured drama.
But what does Jane really think? Does she still love Jake? Is she willing to forgive his past transgressions and current inadequacies? Or does she like Adam? If not answered, these questions should at least be confronted during the course of the film. But no, they’re barely graced upon. Move onto the next gag, where they get stoned at the party.
Baldwin, sliding into the role in full 30 Rock Jack Donaghy persona, is the one reason to see the film – he’s hugely entertaining and accounts for most of the laughs here.
Streep feels entirely out of place here – she’s above the material, we feel in every scene, and that’s not necessarily a failing of the material – and Martin is strangely sedated. Krasinski is also fun as the son-in-law who comes to learn more than he wants to. He’s one of the leads in the US version of The Office; maybe that’s why he and Baldwin fare so well, they’re used to this sitcom-level material.
It’s Complicated is well-produced, with a better cast than the material deserves, and its target audience should enjoy it. Exactly which audience that is, I couldn’t tell you.
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