Nancy, It's Confusing — by Jane

 Thursday, June 17, 2010 


I say good on Nancy Meyers, who, according to IMDb is now the highest-grossing female director, a not-inconsiderable achievement in Hollywood (or maybe that's just a backhanded compliment). Her movies, described as "coffee-table comedies" for their gorgeous, Architectural Digest–porn interiors, are clearly aimed at an older, more sophisticated crowd.

I just rented her latest, It's Complicated, with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, and had about the same reaction to it as I did to her earlier comedies, such as Something's Gotta Give and What Women Want. Though the movies are frothy, feeling, funny, and visually stunning, and I enjoy them overall, I always find myself mystified by the behaviour of her protaganists.

The good parts are very very good: her heroines could be described as alpha females: older, well-established, with generally successful careers, satisfying family relationships, and of course to-die-for digs. AND, even more significant for me and probably for the culture, they like and want sex!! They are desirable, sexy, and horny—and over 50. But they also seem to be in some sort of sad limbo.

Her (anti?)heroes are the equivalent alpha males: successful, wealthy, and educated—and usually womanizers or cheats. They all have major lessons to learn, which it seems only the aforementioned women can teach.

[Spoiler alert] But what do the women figure out? When their romances begin, they wonder if they're only getting involved to ease their loneliness, but this question never gets answered, as far as I can tell. If they're so "mature" and smart, why do they all get the same fairy-tale ending, uniting with "the man of their dreams"? Nancy writes her movies as well, so there's no doubt that this is her vision of mature modern men and women all the way.

At the end of It's Complicated, I was thoroughly confused. Was Meryl dumping Alec because she realized she could do better (Steve), or because she still couldn't trust him? He'd left his trophy wife, so Meryl's other-woman status was no longer a factor. All she really said in the movie was that there'd been a lot of water under the bridge since their divorce, or something like that. And she asks Alec whether he hadn't felt during their affairs that "something wasn't quite right," too, which he never actually answers. (I don't think he agreed.)

By the end, she seems to have loosened up a bit, and to have learned that she's finally moved on, post-divorce. It's unclear whether he's learned that much, as he's now wifeless, mistressless, and homeless. Still got the Porsche, though.

At least these women have the sense to extricate themselves when their doofus mates let them down. Then they go back to patiently waiting in their orgasm-inducing cottages in Santa Barbara and the Hamptons for the right Mr. Right, and failing that, Mr. Right Now. Nothing wrong with that. But why are they so sad?

There are some excellent aspects of Nancy Meyers's boomer rom-coms, and she seems likely to continue to make them, and may in fact have pioneered a whole new genre (see this excellent Guardian article on the effect of the boomer demographic on Hollywood), so I will probably keep watching. But it is unlikely to be for the befuddling characters; it'll be for those ravishing sets (Nancy, can I hire your lighting designer to follow me around and make me look that good?) and the evergreen fantasy of figuring it out, having it all, and still getting the guy.

Over to you! Thoughts?