What Do The Critics Say?
"Streep, not surprisingly, delivers a full-bodied performance. The movie works because the audience can identify with Jane's life, even if they can't identify with her kitchen."
Rob Thomas CAPITAL TIMES
"Meryl Streep is at the center of the story, right where she should be. Steve Martin is wonderfully low-key as Adam. Alec Baldwin is great at playing self-confident cads. It's refreshing watching mature adults in a genre usually reserved for the youth market."
Dustin Putman DP
"Comedies, especially those for thinking adults, don't get any funnier than this."
Brandon Fibbs BRANDON FIBBS.COM
"Streep and Baldwin are terrific.. if you like your romance bittersweet you won’t want to miss this one."
A.O. SCOTT AT THE MOVIES
"It's Complicated is the best middle-aged romcom since Julie & Julia. If you loved Streep in that or Mamma Mia!, you're also going to like her a lot in this. Complicated? No, simply good fun: Marvellous Meryl Streep makes this a rom-com for grown-ups."
Christopher Tookey UK DAILY MAIL
"Divorce has never been so much fun in this smart and funny romantic comedy about getting back together (or not) long after the happily ever after scenario has dried up. Everything about Nancy Meyers' screenplay is shriekingly funny as roles are inverted and the happily divorced couple becomes entangled in more ways than one. It's smart and funny as it promises laughs and knowing groans in a comedy of errors with Streep and Baldwin in tip top form."
Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE
"Mixing elements of frisky French farce with middle-class American comedy, It's Complicated is a daffy and delectable spree. Streep's polite resistance is the perfect foil for Baldwin's earnest portrayal of a horny old dog. It's a thoughtful, daring and fun film, in which Meyers, once again, has put some glamour into the sex lives of the 50-somethings."
Karen Krizanovich RADIO TIMES
"Simply put, It's Complicated is a hoot. Baldwin's Jake is just about the most appealing lout that's ever graced and (mildly) disgraced the screen."
Lisa Kennedy DENVER POST
Beneath this movie's gleaming high-end surfaces beats the heart of a classic screwball comedy."
Dana Stevens SLATE
"Baldwin, Martin and Meyers stage an ensemble comedy that's among the funniest movies of 2009."
John Wirt ADVOCATE
"For all the complicatedness of the emotions Streep and Baldwin navigate, it's still a smooth ride to huge grins and hearty guffaws, with excellent performances."
Karina Montgomery CINERINA
"Streep is wonderfully complicated as Jane, sliding from one side of femininity to another, while Alec Baldwin delivers a clear and endearing portrait of a sinner husband who was a sinner husband the first time around. Part wishful thinking and part grown up romantic comedy, Nancy Meyers' It's Complicated is never as complicated as it tries to make out: but for the most part it's sufficiently entertaining for adults wanting what teenage romance can't usually deliver: depth and texture."
Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE
The Inside Story
Over the past thirty years, Nancy Meyers has made several successful romantic comedies featuring adult characters forced to come face to face with truths they’ve long been avoiding. Throughout the years, the filmmaker has incorporated her own life experiences into her work. In "It’s Complicated", she taps into the world of life after divorce. Meyers’ screenplay examines a divorced couple who become exes with benefits. Jane and Jake Adler find themselves stumbling through the comic emotional minefield of a clandestine affair, while the charming,reserved Adam, struggles to move on from a painful divorce of his own. "Some people never learn the simple truths," offers Meyers. "It’s the lucky ones who ultimately learn something. I tend to explore things that, in some ways, I wrestle with. Writing has always been very therapeutic for me. A lot of my movies parallel events in my life, but I’ve never joined the army, and I’ve never had an affair with my ex-husband. The plotting is never the truth, but what’s underneath is heartfelt." Meyers found enormous comedic possibilities exploring the territory of an ex-wife having an affair with her ex-husband. For inspiration, she looked to Paul Mazursky classics from the 1970s as examples of films strongly identifiable with the period in which they were made. Mazursky received the 1970 Writers Guild of America Award for "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" (1969) and in 1979 the Bodil Award for "An Unmarried Woman" (1978). "I was drawn to the post-divorce world that exes find themselves in and how their relationship, in many ways, never really ends: the bumping into one another, figuring out how to still parent together, how to live in the same town together. I noticed how much the word 'together' still exists once you’re divorced. The idea of a exes reuniting surreptitiously was intriguing," Meyers reflected. "The comic possibilities were very rich, and the repercussions of this ex-couple back in each other’s lives seemed dangerous and liberating at the same time. This story really pulled me in. The 'What if?' factor was just so complex, it had so many levels to it and then there was a new man to bring into the mix; just to complicate it even further." With her story in place, Meyers worked with Oscar ® winning producer Scott Rudin ("No Country For Old Men") to make the project happen. "I’ve known Scott for over twenty five years, and I watched his career grow; he is a phenomenal force in the business. "He has impeccable taste, makes smart, interesting films and works with great filmmakers. I went to him with this movie and said, 'I’d really love your help in putting it together and making the film.' He’s been an incredible asset to the movie." "Nancy is a genuinely wonderful filmmaker," says Rudin. "I’ve always been a huge, huge fan of hers, so I was completely thrilled when she invited me to produce this one with her. I used to offer her movies to direct all the time, and she always turned me down, saying that she wasn’t ready. Well of course she was ready, and this is, in my opinion, her very best film." Throughout their development process, Rudin ("Shaft") was moved by the authenticity of feeling he found in the project. "Nancy never once sacrifices any of the comedy she’s reaching for by simultaneously investing the story with so much emotional truth. The detailed representation of the marriage, the intimacy between the people: all of it is moving and true, and makes the movie relatable on a profound and unexpected level." EMMY winner Rudin was also impressed by the screenplay’s honesty. "Nancy shows a great deal of herself in this movie: not so much in the specifics of Jane, but in the feelings she’s describing all throughout the movie."
While writing the script, Nancy Meyers kept Meryl Streep in mind for the role of the fifty something Jane, a successful mother and business owner who feels she has finally moved on from her divorce and is building the life she wants. "I pictured Meryl in this part, and I pictured her doing things that I would never have the guts to do. Thinking of Meryl pushed me as I wrote. Jane is definitely braver than I am, and it was fun writing that bravery and the choices she would make and the chances she would allow herself to take," Meyers said. Rudin agreed with Meyers that Streep would be the production’s ideal Jane. He and Streep have had a long and rich history of working together that began in 1996 with "Marvin’s Room", for which Rudin received the 1997 Christopher Award. "I can’t imagine ever having a more exciting, ongoing collaboration with anyone than the one I’ve had with her," he reflects. "She is simply the greatest actress on the planet. She brings every ounce of her talent to the set every day." When she read the script, Oscar ® Streep (Best Actress for "Sophie's Choice" & Best Supporting Actress for "Kramer vs Kramer") says she was moved by the fact that Meyers had "tapped into something deep about families who’ve encountered divorce; or anybody who has been abandoned by someone they love." Streep understood Jane as a woman who "had reached a point where, after the disruptions of a life, is having a good time." the Two time David di Donatello Award winner ["Falling in Love" (1985) and "Out of Africa" (1986)] believed that the comedy’s setup was sensitive to, as she puts it, "forgotten women: women who don’t see their lives played out the way they do in this film." Two time People's Choice Award winner Steve Martin (Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actor), who’d previously worked with Meyers when he was cast as George Banks in the comedies, "Father of the Bride" (1991) and "Father of the Bride Part II" (1995), was tapped for the role of Jane’s competing love interest Adam . The director had been eager to write another role for him, and she penned Adam, a recently divorced architect who was struggling to let go of his past. "Steve is absolutely wonderful at light comedy," says Meyers. "I knew this from working with him on Father of the Bride. He brings a tremendous warmth and ease to a movie. It was fantastic to watch the legendary Steve Martin play some of the smaller, more reserved moments in this movie. He found so much humor in the tiniest of moments." Martin ("Bowfinger" & "Shop Girl") looked forward to reuniting with his old friend. "Nancy called me and said I have this part that I would like you to play. In my head, I went, 'Yippee!' I read it and found, as is typical with Nancy’s movies, it was sophisticated and accurate to human behavior. She writes quirkiness very well without it looking too exaggerated. She writes real people, and I was flattered to be asked to be in the movie." To play the part of Jane’s smitten ex-husband, the filmmakers cast two time Emmy Award and two time Golden Globe winning actor Alec Baldwin. Baldwin has been a fan of Meyers since the time she was primarily writing screenplays. He has fond memories of her earlier films, including "Private Benjamin" and "The Parent Trap", as well as her later directing efforts, such as "What Women Want" and "Something’s Gotta Give". "I’ve always loved her films," the star of "30 Rock" says, "because they are adult movies about adult relationships, and the trouble people get into in these relationships. But another reason I wanted to do this film was Meryl. Like most actors working today, I have worshipped Meryl for a long time, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to work with her."
"And then, of course, there was Steve Martin," Baldwin ("The Cooler") adds. "He’s already a veteran of these movies with Nancy, and I have been a fan of Steve’s movies forever. I think it works because you’d be hard-pressed to find two people who were more dissimilar than Steve’s character and my character." "Alec is a very skilled comic actor," Meyers says. " There’s no piece of dialogue he can’t turn for you; he’s able to bend the speeches in the script into exactly the shape they’re meant to be, and then he manages to add something to it with just the right gesture: a look, an eye movement, a nod. He makes Jake impossible to resist for the audience: and for Jane." "Alec is our Spencer Tracy," Rudin states. "He’s got unbelievable skill, but it’s almost completely invisible. You simply cannot deconstruct what he does; it’s that original and unique. It’s very rare that you see the kind of deftness in a comic partnership that Alec and Meryl have. The give and take, the way they pass the ball back and forth, is exquisite. Just about my favorite thing in this movie is the intimacy between them and the fact that as they’re telling a story that’s moving forward in the present, everything they do is also serving to tell you the detailed story of their marriage in the past." With her core cast intact, Meyers reflected on the chemistry that was evident between Streep (Lisa Metzger in Ben Younger's "Prime") and Baldwin (Captain Ellerby in Oscar ® winner Martin Scorsese's "The Departed") as they performed opposite one another. "They play extremely well off each other; each is very responsive to what the other one does. There’s a bit of an ongoing one-upmanship between Jane and Jake, and Alec and Meryl kept that volley going through the entire shoot." Streep cites her leading men as a primary reason she wanted to film "It’s Complicated". About Martin and Baldwin, she reflects: "They’re both so wildly and inventively funny. I just love them both. Everyone that’s cast in this film is perfectly chosen. The men don’t shy away from the feelings of the story. They’re not just willing to be funny. They’re willing to reveal themselves, which is not always that easy." John Krasinski who was cast as Jane and Jake’s eldest daughter’s fiancé, Harley, notes: "Nancy finds the humor and the heart in a lot of situations and makes them comedic." For the role of Jake’s trophy wife, Agness, Meyers chose actress Lake Bell ("What Happens in Vegas"). "She is really good," Meyers notes. "I read a lot of young women for this part, and once I read her, I stopped looking. She’s smart and sophisticated, and her comic timing is very sly." Meyers also stopped looking at actresses after she read Zoe Kazan for the role of Gabby, Jake and Jane’s middle child. Kazan enjoyed success after her performance as Leonardo DiCaprio’s office fling Maureen Grube, in "Revolutionary Road". "Zoe was the first of the kids that I cast." Hunter Parrish ("Weeds") was cast as Gabby’s younger brother Luke." "I kept asking Hunter if I could adopt him," Meyers said. "He’s a charming kid with a very naturalistic approach to acting." Tall, blonde and patrician Caitlin Fitzgerald ("Taking Woodstock") was cast as Jane and Jake’s eldest daughter, Lauren. "There’s a purity to her,' says Meyers. "She could easily slip into any Jane Austen movie in a second. She has a very timeless quality. Lauren’s the one who’s careful and cautious and protective of her mother." "My character is very maternal in the film," Fitzgerald says. "And certainly very maternal towards Meryl’s character. During the divorce, Lauren was the one who took care of her younger siblings and comforted her mother. I feel like a very old soul in this movie.".
Synopsis
 Jane Adler is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara, california bakery/restaurant and has; after a decade of divorce, an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake. But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated. An innocent meal together leads to several bottles of wine, which in turn becomes a laugh-filled evening of memories about their marriage. It leads to an impulsive affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness, Jane is now, of all things, the other woman. Caught in the middle of this renewed romance is Adam, an architect hired to remodel Jane’s kitchen. Also divorced, Adam starts to fall for Jane. Should Jane and Jake move on with their separate lives, or has the passage of time made them realize that they really are better together than apart? It's: complicated.
The Verdict
"There is a beautiful look and feel to "It's Complicated" thanks to 1995 and '06 Oscar ® winning cinematographer John Toll A.S.C, who is by the way, one of only two cinematographers to win the Oscar ® back to back. Toll did it with "Legends of the Fall" & "Braveheart", while four time Oscar ® winner Leon Shamroy did it in 1945 and '46 with "Wilson" & "Prince of Foxes". Shamroy's other wins came in 1943 with "The Black Swan" and in 1964 when he received two nominations but won the Oscar ® for "Cleopatra which starred another two time Oscar ® winner, Elizabeth Taylor." Two time Oscar ® winner Meryl Streep heaped praise on D.O.P Toll by describing his work in "It's Complicated" as "absolutely beautiful. I’m so grateful to John for not only making the frame lovely, but for making the people glow with warmth. He captures the sense of home: longing for home, breaking up homes and building homes; that’s at the center of this film. He did an amazing job." In fact everything about Nancy Meyers latest film is amazing. Amazingly funny; amazingly sexy and here's the hook, amazingly, it has massive appeal to a male audience. It's true. The queen of what many perceive to only be 'chick flicks', has produced a film that has equal appeal for both guys and gals. As the centre-pieces for the film, Streep and Baldwin are superb and yes: very convincing. But isn't that what you'd expect from such seasoned performers? On the other hand Steve Martin is charming in an understated 'straight' role, many will find refreshing. So come on guys, surprise the missus, girlfriend or 'partner' by getting in first and suggesting a funfilled, romantic night out with "It's Complicated". Doing so will almost guarantee that, upon arriving home after the film, you'll both be half-naked by the time you get the front door open. Don't let the ladies have all the fun guys! Turn off the sports channel and get your backside into a multiplex now. SOLID 4 STARS."
Who's Who?
Meryl Streep
Steve Martin
Alec Baldwin
John Krasinski
Lake Bell
Mary Kay Place
Rita Wilson
Alexandra Wentworth
Hunter Parrish
Zoe Kazan
Caitlin Fitzgerald
Emjay Anthony
Nora Dunn
Bruce Altman
Robert Curtis Brown
James Patrick Stuart
Peter Mackenzie
Pat Finn
Sean Hamrin
Valente Rodriguez
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Jane Adler
Adam
Jake Adler
Harley
Agness
Joanne
Trisha
Diane
Luke Adler
Gabby Adler
Lauren Adler
Pedro
Sally
Ted
Peter
Dr Moss
Dr Allen
Hotel Doctor
Oliver
Reynaldo
The Crew
Director
Written by
Producers
Original Music
Cinematography
Film Editors
Production Designer
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Costume Design
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Nancy Meyers
Nancy Meyers
Nancy Meyers & Scott Rudin
Hans Zimmer
John Toll
Joe Hutshing & David Moritz
Jon Hutman
W Steven Graham
Beth A Rubino
Sonia Grande
Run Time 122 minutes
Rated M [AUST]
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