IT'S COMPLICATED

Written by Fido

Really, it’s not that complicated. It’s not the kind of movie that’s going to change the landscape of movie-making. It’s not some effects-laden adventure story culled from hundreds of other stories and dressed up in a fancy new CG package. There’s no incredibly clever stuff here. The jokes in the movie you’ve heard before and the plot is pretty dang pedestrian. But what sets Nancy Meyers It’s Complicated apart are the performances in that exceedingly normal story.

The big giant surprise, Meryl Streep is once again completely hypnotizing to watch. You find yourself quietly rooting for her from beginning to end. Even through moments of her character’s middle-aged chick nuttiness, you never grow tired of her. In fact, I found myself wondering halfway through the movie if she has ever really been atrocious in anything. Even in the worst of scripts (which this movie isn’t) or productions, she winds up with her head above water.

For that matter, Alec Baldwin is pretty charming here too. There’s a little overload on the whispering voiceover version of his voice, but when it comes down to it even the “dirtbaggery” his character dispenses becomes kind of endearing. Add onto that an increasingly odd-looking, but still comfortable to watch, Steve Martin in the role of the peon new guy that stumbles his way into the arena of family nuttiness, and this movie has something that is unfortunately seen less and less nowadays.

The acting is well done and leads to sheepish, smile-inducing chemistry. That alone makes It’s Complicated anything but complicated to grab a hold of and enjoy no matter your age or if you have a penchant for a cleanly executed romantic comedy.

Even down to the miniscule scenes between The Office’s John Krasinski and Meryl Streep (by the way they have an interesting dynamic on screen that would feed really well into some kind of cougar premise, if that whole thing isn’t played out yet), this movie is a shining example of how actors with actual talent, not just flash-in-the-pan pop stars force fed to us, can make anything not just watchable, but exceedingly comfortable.

In the end, I can’t see why It’s Complicated would win any awards, but not every movie needs to be some sweeping epic, cheap awards grab or hackneyed statement on social mores of the time. Sometimes it’s great just to see a movie that makes you feel a little better about the state of acting and the state of yourself.