Review of It's Complicated (2009) by Chads — 27 Dec 2009

In the afterglow of making love to his ex-wife for a second time, Jake(Alec Baldwin) tells Jane(Meryl Streep), "We grew into the people we always wanted to be." Funny thing, though; the ten years, the intervening years of their divorce, which it took to become the finished products Jake suggests that they'd become, seems to largely have been accomplished without the influence of each other's matrimonial company.

Jane survived the divorce, and even prospered during the interim of her husband's departure. The sadness brought on by Empty Nest Syndrome, notwithstanding, this single businesswoman is doing fine; she has enough funds(as a result of her successfully-ran patisserie) to expand the house and remodel the kitchen, so, perhaps, divorce gave her wings.

The motivation behind Jane's affair with Jake is designed to mollify, not horrify, the moviegoer, which is why "It's Complicated" falls short of being a French farce. (Something Baldwin says implies that it's so.

) This is very much a Hollywood-sanctioned product, and this is how: While gabbing with close friends at a potluck, revenge against Agnes(Jake's much-younger wife, played by Lake Bell), the former other woman, is voiced by Jane, but the filmmaker relegates this juicier motivation behind the ironic sex to a mere byproduct of her residual feelings for Jake.

"It's Complicated" is really not that complicated at all, since Jane has romantic notions toward her ex-husband from the outset. (In a major studio motion picture, the female protagonist can't be a vindictive home-wrecker.

) Don't get me wrong: "It's Complicated" has quite a few laugh-worthy moments(and that's high praise, given the recent slate of "comedies"), but it's so depressingly safe.

On "Inside the Actor's Studio w/James Lipton", Ms. Streep answered, "Edgy," as being her least favorite word on the survey which the host conducts at the end of every show, and true to form, "It's Complicated" is not edgy, at all.

To be edgy, such entertaining of romantic notions on Jane's part should have been written as an unexpected outgrowth of her initial plan to be a middle-aged femme fatale. (The professional accomplishments of single women too often are undermined by some deficiency in their love lives.

) "It's Complicated" makes adultery look innocent because the film mostly villifies the younger woman, even though, it would seem that Jake became the man he so admires, in due part to her guiding influence.