It’s Complicated (2009)

Tags

Alec Baldwin, Comedy, Drama, It's Complicated, John Krasinski, Lake Bell, Meryl Streep, Movie, Romance, Steve Martin

do a Jim look...c'mon, do it...do it!

R

Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Lake Bell

Jake: I’m sorry.
Jane: How far back does that ‘sorry’ go?
Jake: How far back do you need it to go?
Jane: Way back.

While in New York for her son’s graduation, Jane (Streep) starts up an affair with her remarried ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin).  Meanwhile, Jane and Adam (Martin), an architect she’s hired, start to take a liking to each other as well.

If I had to sum this one up quickly, I’d say it’s funny, but way too long.  There are several repetitive scenes that could have been trimmed down or cut altogether.  The pace just seemed…slow.

Streep is good as always, and she and Baldwin work well together.  Steve Martin was alright as Adam, but I didn’t really believe his and Jane’s relationship.  Martin wasn’t really given much opportunity to show his comedic side (other than a tired, inappropriately high at a party scene), so his character just came off as a little bland and unmemorable.  As Streep and Baldwin’s future son in law, Harley, John Krasinski manages to score some laughs in the few scenes that he has, so fans of The Office will probably enjoy seeing him doing something marginally different.  Though I did keep expecting him to look at the camera and give the classic Jim face.

Let’s face it, though, the movie belongs to Streep, and she’s mostly up to the task.  I did grow a little weary of her character, and the whole scenario in general, but not so much that I stopped enjoying the film entirely.  I was just ready for it to be over a little bit before it was ready to be over.

I can’t say I loved it, but I certainly liked it for the most part.  I guess you could say my opinion of it is…well, it’s com-…plex.

If you’re having marital problems, get a divorce, then wait until the kids are all out of the house and you’re no longer obsessed with your job, etc…then give the relationship another go.

10 – 1.5 for being overlong/needing some scenes cut here and there – 1 for a few failed/tired comedic attempts – .5 for some underdeveloped characters = 7.0

Bowfinger (1999)

Tags

Bowfinger, Comedy, Eddie Murphy, Movie, Steve Martin

Why don't either of us make funny movies anymore?

PG-13

Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham

Bowfinger: Would you be willing to cut your hair?
Jiff: Well, yeah…but it would probably be better if someone else did it.  I’ve had a few… accidents.

Bowfinger (Martin) is a man trying to make a big film with a very small crew and almost zero budget.  He comes up with the idea to film action star Kit Ramsey (Murphy) secretly so he can have him in his movie without getting his permission.  What he doesn’t know is that Ramsey is already paranoid about people following him, so when he starts to have random people come up to him and say weird movie lines about aliens, it starts to push him over the edge.

I wish Steve Martin did more movies like this rather than Pink Panther remakes and such.  He’s much funnier when he’s more subtle.  I will always laugh at the disbelieving stare he’s so good at giving, much like the one in the picture above.

This movie doesn’t always work, but as a comedy, its job is to make me laugh, and I did laugh enough to give it a positive review.  There are times when you have to suspend your disbelief to a high degree, but with a premise this far-fetched, that’s a given.

The point of the movie is really just to poke fun at actors, directors, producers…pretty much everybody and everything revolving around Hollywood.  I think it does that pretty effectively for the most part.

Eddie Murphy is really good, especially as Jiff, the weird, geeky guy they hire as a double for Murphy’s other character, Kit Ramsey.  Also, there’s Heather Graham…so…yeah…’nuff said.

10 – 2.1 because even for a comedy it was sometimes hard to suspend my disbelief + .2 for HG – .5 for a lackluster ending = 7.6