Review by Sean Moreland: Twelve years after her directorial debut, "The Parent Trap," Nancy Meyers is still delivering the goods to hug and chuckle-hungry audiences the world over. She's earned her reputation as queen of the romantic comedy (stepping up when Nora Ephron stepped down), and "It's Complicated" reinforces her claim to the title—which, in my books, is a dubious distinction, but one she deserves. When you watch one of her films, you enter a clean, well-lit zone with everything (characters, furniture, heartfelt yet witty dialogue) fitting snugly in its place. All of this is certainly true of "It's Complicated," which, really, isn't that complicated at all.

Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) divorced ten years ago, after Jane learned Jake was (in fulfillment of a middle-aged, upper-class male stereotype) cheating on her with a nubile yuppie vixen named Agness (Lake Bell), whom Jake has subsequently married. While visiting New York to attend the graduation of one of their children, however, Jane and Jake are thrown together at a hotel bar, where they booze it up, dance it up, and, later, get it on, igniting the embers of sexual attraction that have been quietly smoldering away in the decade since their separation. Surprised by the feelings Jake awakens in her after all these years, and after careful consultation with her gaggle of fifty-something girlfriends and her analysis-obsessed therapist, Jane decides to allow herself to explore the possibilities of this uncharacteristically inappropriate affair, only to realize she's starting to develop stronger, more stable, and mutually intense feelings for her subdued hushpuppy of an architect, Adam (Steve Martin). I'm willing to bet you can guess where it goes from here.

There are some fun touches, such as the film's comic—if obvious—inversion of the male sexual gaze; Jane refuses to get out of bed before donning a robe, but we're treated to some rolling, woolly expanses of bare Baldwin as Jake repeatedly tries to seduce her with his ample manly charms. And there are, of course, the requisite scenes of Jane sitting at a pie-laden table with her gossip-thirsty bosom buddies, giggling and gasping over her newly reinvented sex life with OMG-aplomb worthy of any "Twilight"-hungry tween. These scenes contain some of the film's funniest dialogue and gave me nostalgic flashbacks of a youth misspent watching "Golden Girls" on TV.

The film also has, to its advantage, a great performance by the inimitable Meryl Streep, and it's one of the first in some time to cast Steve Martin as something other than a clowning parody of himself. The two share a comic chemistry, which got me laughing on a few occasions (seeing Streep and Martin hyperbolically hamming a pot-high is nothing if not diverting!). But long before the film's final scene, I tired of its relentless tidiness, its forced earnestness, and its contrived events. In other words, I tired of watching a fairly generic romantic comedy.

I can't help but note, in closing, that Jane's devotion to her successful baking business, her quirky-but-never-dysfunctional family and her unnervingly spotless home adhere scrupulously to some unwritten but invariant rom-com contract directors must be forced to sign. If you like Meyers' other films, you'll probably like this one; in its trying-to-be-frank-without-offending way, it's an admirable piece of....craftspersonship? So, again, it's not complicated. If you're looking for light laughs, prolix pontifications on love and lust with wine and cheesecake, and a chance to vent some sentimental "ahhhs," I can recommend "It's Complicated," which is every bit the Nancy Meyers movie you would expect. But otherwise…

Last Word: "It's Complicated" delivers what Nancy Meyers's name promises: wit that's cheeky but never vulgar, an empowered and chatty heroine, and a promise never to stray outside the comfortable conventions of the romantic comedy genre.

Review By:
Sean Moreland

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