It’s Complicated

While there are some good laughs to be had in the latest from writer-director Nancy Meyers, this film is actually done in by a surprising culprit of bad overacting. That culprit is none other than the usually reliable Meryl Streep. As much as I tried to like her, I could not stand Streep in this movie. The movie is bubble-headed, and she treats it like bad Shakespeare. While others in the cast, including Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin and a very funny John Krasinski seem to know they’re just doing time in a silly movie, Streep just kills the fun when she talks. Where’s Diane Keaton when you need her? Streep plays Jane, a divorced mom who is forced to mingle with her ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin) and his new girl, Agness (Lake Bell). Jake, who is not having fun with his much younger wife, notices that Jane is still kind of hot. The two slam a bunch of cocktails and wind up in a hotel room doing unspeakably nasty things, punctuated by Jane’s profuse vomiting. They start an affair that is complicated by her dating a bashful architect (Martin). I laughed hard during a pot-smoking sequence but found myself annoyed by Streep’s shrill performance.