Review of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) by Haralabos S — 21 Jul 2009

Bright, chatty, photogenic entertainment, with a number of better-than-decent performances on its side: Arkin is given more to work with than his now stock, Oscar-certified role of cranky uncle, and makes touching - where others might well have made creepy - a run of scenes in which he woos a sensitive, attuned Lively as the teenage Pippa.

Accompanying boyfriends might well have their reluctance ground down by a scene in which Lively is dolled up in pigtails and a frilly blouse by lesbian photographer Moore, and Wright Penn - perhaps because of the excess of biographical info we're given about Pippa, perhaps because Miller allows her to smile and laugh and work out a happy ending for herself - is more present, more alive than she's been on screen at any time since "The Princess Bride".