Did not care for this movie at all. I thought there were a few good moments, which did not overcome the fact that a lot of this movie is a struggle to watch. Before i get to any of this, though, i need to deal with Alec Baldwin.
Baldwin is good in this movie. Not great like some people say. The most stunning part of his performance is that he's playing a 58 year old man, while really only being 51 years old. The sad part is that the crowd I saw this movie with all believed that he was 58. But who wouldn't? He looks terrible in this movie.
I actually heard some older female critics say that this version of Baldwin was sexier than when he could actually see his toes (they might have just said when he was younger...). Well that's ridiculous! I understand the idea of a suave older man, but this guy is a mess! Meryl Streep's character never should have settled for this guy, especially when you've got the lean mean Steve Martin waiting on the bench. Ok, maybe I'll buy that she has emotional feelings for Baldwin. In fact, as a fat man myself I'm more than willing to embrace the notion that women can look beyond fat, I mean girls sometimes are interested in me so that has to be the case (Editor's note: He's not Alec baldwin fat. He's more Steve Martin fat, who isn't really fat, but has love handles and no real definition. Unlike Martin Dave has nice dark hair. Besides that they're the same person.)
Anyway, Baldwin is the driving force in the movie. He instigates the affair. I can't imagine anyone else playing the role, as it was written. Maybe Jack Nicholson ten years ago, but it would have felt like a cliche. Baldwin is a cliche in his performance, in that he accurately captures the older man who traded up and is regretting his decision. This is not Baldwin on screen, it's a compilation of every man that has made this mistake. Nicholson basically would have just played himself.
So I liked Baldwin in the movie. He's funny, complicated and captured the ugly truth about the horniness of older people. I also liked Steve Martin as a man getting back into the dating game. At points his performance felt over the top and phony, but his subtle moments where he's expressing himself with his eyes or an awkward movement are impressive. That's about all I liked in this movie.
Now let's get to what I didn't like, which would also be known as everything else.
First of all, John Krasinski was awful in this movie. I understand the doting boyfriend who acts like a brother in the family, except it feels so phony the way he dives into the role. It's just so heavy handed in its delivery that he becomes an annoying caricature of a character that had the potential to be relatively entertaining.
Second, those kids in the movie suck. It's great that they all look like Meryl Streep, but it sucks that none of them can act like her. It felt like they were trapped in a high school play, delivering lines that they were ill-suited to perform. And then all the crying they did, ugh. They weren't a bunch of twelve year olds. If you didn't emerge from this movie hating these kids, then you were so turned on by these GAP models that you're just willing to forgive their shortcomings as performers.
Third, this movie is way too long. Oh my god, i thought it would never end. It was a legitimate two hours long! I'm sorry, Nancy Meyers is an artist and needs to captivate our attention for two hours! Except, oh wait, I wasn't captivated at all. I was squirming and bored, except for the few awkward moments when the old people were acting like young people.
And there could be the root of my disconnect with this movie. I'm not old, successful or hampered by any major urination issues (just minor ones). Does that immediately bias me against this movie? I don't think so. In fact, I think I gave this movie too much credit on the basis that some of the movie might not speak to me. Well i heard what the movie has to say and I think it's a load of crap. It's not complicated, it's cliched and annoying.
The cliche is Meyers herself, who supposedly is in the business of making chick flick's for adults at this stage in the game. I don't buy that this is even a genre. You don't make adult chick flicks, you make adult movies. Unfortunately, Meyers doesn't make an adult movie here, like she does in SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE. She makes a chick flick with older actors, which is then able to masquerade as some adult piece. Give me a break. This movie didn't capture any sort of reality. There was no mention of safe sex, the pills Meryl would be taking, the fact her kitchen was already amazing, masturbation, retirement, flaccid penises, hot flashes and whatever else old people need to consider when they deal with life. The movie might claim complications, but the world Meyers creates and lives in is a relative dream where we all own a bakery, have perfect kids and get our freak on during the middle of the work day.
Now for Meryl Streep. I'd hate to suggest that she is just "ok" in the movie, but that was my impression. She didn't disappear into this role, which I think was necessary for it to be effective. Instead we get "Meryl Streep's Complicated Sex Life: THE MOVIE." This is just one way to go with this idea.
I mean we've been watching old ladies have sex for years on SEX AND THE CITY, so this movie isn't that original.
Maybe other people liked this movie. In fact, I know they did, since i was in a packed theater wondering why people were laughing when I wasn't. The only time i did laugh was while Alec Baldwin was blowing a puff of smoke into John Krasinski's mouth. Most of my amusement stemmed from the fact I viewed the scene as the really people performing these actions. This may have been a problem with the movie, and this touches on a complaint of Saratogian staffer Emily Donohue.
Donohue alleges that Meyers just jam packs her movies with stars and lets the chip fall wherever. I argued against this last night, contending that the casting is carefully done. She countered that it's just done to draw an audience, essentially to create a buzz. Now I'm willing to concede to that point, solely based on Streep. If she was perfectly cast than she would have receded into the background and i would have accepted her as the character. That never happened. So kudos to you, Emily Donohue (that kind of rhymed).
2 comments:
Why did you spend so much space on Alec Baldwin's looks?
Because I'm fascinated with what I might look like. Actually, I made a decision in my life that I wouldn't become Alec Baldwin. I could give up like he did and embrace being fat. I've chosen to fight this possibility. The struggle is obviously ongoing.
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