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Nancy Meyers deftly deals with the age-old subject of love and estrangement IN the old days, they said love and marriage went together like a horse and carriage. Later, it was love and divorce that followed each other with amazing regularity. Today love, marriage and divorce — all form an amalgam and, at times, the ultimate stereotype is having two sets of children, one in high school and the other in kindergarten. It’s Complicated is about two aging individuals who fall in love, get divorced and fall in love again, a second chance.
The two yesteryear stars are Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. As Jane (Streep) and Jake (Baldwin) are married for nearly two decades before they split up. Jake is handsome still but bulging in the middle while Jane has kept herself better. Accidentally they meet at a New York hotel where Jake’s eldest daughter is finishing her graduation. His second wife Agness (Lake Bell) is half his age and it is her skimpy attire that first gets on Jane’s nerves. That the old spark is still very much with Jake is, at , obvious. Meanwhile, Jane is getting ready for a new home all by herself ("no two sinks in the bathroom, only one") and her architect Adam (Steve Martin) has the plans ready. Now Adam is a divorcee and no prizes for guessing but he thinks he too can cast his hat in for Jane, even though he’s the very shy type. It’s the age-old subject of love and estrangement. And director Nancy Meyers endows it with enough romance and twists and turns to keep the viewer guessing. They say women directors like to see men crying. They are also said to be verbose but the first half of the film is racy with a good deal of variety. The shift from indoors to zesty outdoors is most welcome aided by Frank Zimmer’s feisty music and cinematographer John Toll’s fluid camerawork and among other things he freaks out on those Mexican roof tiles. "Just because we
were married for 19 years does not mean that it is not an
affair," Jane tells Jake after their first encounter. Soon she
sees her shrink to take advice but it is an off-and-on thing and both
players seem sincere in their efforts. Thankfully, Steve Martin isn’t
allowed to overdo his own thing, except on one occasion when he is on
pot but that is quite bearable. It’s old wine in new bottles and
Meyers is still able to imbue certain freshness in the subject. For
one thing it allows the children to have their say in the issue, which
indeed is breaking new ground. When all is said and done and 120
minutes later It’s Complicated finishes off a feel-good film,
which could have been clipped by at le
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