Day 3 – Project 365

Originally uploaded by snarkwife

You know that phrase, “Why don’t you take a picture, it’ll last longer”? I thought it would be really cute to take a picture of the opening title for It’s Complicated for Project 365…original.  After all, this project is supposed to be my photographic account of 2010.

By the time we got to the closing credits I started thinking, “Dear God, now that I’ve committed this photo to The Project, I’m always going to be reminded we went and saw this movie.”

Yes folks, it was that bad.  I suppose the argument could be made that I wasn’t the target demographic for this movie.  I am not Catholic, nor did I live in the Bronx in the 60s, but I still liked Doubt (another Streep flick, by the by). I’m not new to the Nancy Meyers schtick…I saw Something’s Gotta Give along with the rest of the world, and enjoyed it. What Women Want is one of my favorite movies.  The Holiday, though?  Terrible. AWFUL. Bad casting, bad script, and a gross under-utilization of Jack Black.

But, I like Meryl Streep. I like Alec Baldwin. I like romantic comedies. However, I don’t like movies that downplay adultery just because the two people involved were married for twenty years before divorcing ten years ago. I don’t like movies that make it look like the marriage crumbling was entirely the man’s fault until three minutes before the movie ends, when the ex-wife sheepishly admits to maybe, perhaps playing an itty bitty role herself.  I don’t like movies that have useless characters…like Jake’s 5-year old stepson (hmm…Modern Family much?) who served no purpose whatsoever except to make me happy Jake won’t have to pay child support post-divorce.

And the laughing.  You know those scenes where people laugh…just because?  Whatever is going on isn’t terrible funny, or clever…yet people laugh that “knowing” laugh. There were a couple of scenes like that in Sex and The City, and It’s Complicated was overflowing with them. Everything is sooooooo funny.

Plus, Jane lives in a perfect Santa Barbara compound (I lived there, housing like that ain’t cheap) with the perfect bakery boutique, the perfect backyard, the perfect garden (which is enormous, by the by), and the perfect grown adult children (well, except for the fact that they all behave as if they’re nine). Jane had no flaws…none. Tell me again, what exactly is complicated about her life…hmm?  Hmm?

Ohhh…that’s right. She’s been in therapy for eight years, and clearly hadn’t learned a damn thing since she got drunk and had sex with her married ex. It’s not her fault, though. She’s lonely. She has unfinished business. She wants revenge. It’s the wine’s fault. And Tom Petty’s.

Maybe that’s why I liked Diane Keaton’s Erica in Something’s Gotta Give…girlfriend had plenty of flaws, which made her endearing.  You can’t help but root for a character who is totally neurotic and seems to be one book deal away from a nervous breakdown.

Anyhoo, I didn’t like It’s Complicated and Seth liked it even less. Plus I think Steve Martin’s had some, ahem, work done.

We did enjoy coming up with titles for future Nancy Meyers movies, though. Please feel free to add your own ideas in the comments.

• It Is What It Is
• Que Sera, Sera
• It’s Not What You Think
• Whaddya Do?
• I Feel Like We’re Two Characters In a Nancy Meyers Film
• It Just Felt Right
• It’s Always Something
• It’s Another Iteration of It’s
• It’s the Wine’s Fault…and Tom Petty’s
• Well Don’t That Just Beat All!