Give me more Meryl. Give us all more Meryl.
Oh, I don’t mean it literally, though I’m enthralled watching Meryl Streep cast in any role. And thanks to cable television, I spent much of my wet weekend catching up on films I’d never seen in the theater. I thoroughly enjoyed the Oscar winning actress in Doubt, in Julie and Julia, and last evening, in It’s Complicated.
It struck me this morning that over the space of a few days, I was treated to dramatically different depictions of mature women enjoying their lives – and their sexuality. In particular, Kim Catrall as Samantha in Sex and the City 2, and Meryl Streep as Jane in It’s Complicated.
The former left me disheartened, and the latter, enchanted.
It’s impossible to deny the prodigious talents of La Streep in material of any sort, and it’s unfair to compare Catrall and Streep for any number of reasons.
Writing for women by women?
There’s no question that the role of Jane in It’s Complicated offered more meat, more subtlety, and more complexity. Surely we have the deft handling of writer-director Nancy Meyers to thank for that. She also delighted audiences with 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give, pairing Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in another example of a mature woman portrayed as successful, complex, and lovable, pursued by two men as she rediscovers her sexuality.
I’ve already stated my views on Sex and the City 2, a movie I expected to enjoy but found lacking. As for It’s Complicated, I was convinced I would dislike it, and instead, found it funny, satisfying, and ultimately upbeat.
Mature women in film
So what yields such a dichotomous viewing experience?
We could likely agree that Streep at her worst (if it exists) is wonderful, even in a romp like It’s Complicated with its far-fetched plot. Since when does an independent woman some 10 years post-divorce have an affair with her ex? And one who is married to the much younger woman he left her for?
Still, I succumbed to the deliciously talented cast and the movie’s considerable charm.
Steve Martin amuses us in a supporting role as a new suitor for Jane, while Alec Baldwin sparkles as the portly, flirtatious, and devilishly engaging philanderer who realizes what he lost a decade earlier. He doesn’t deny his age (or physical changes) any more than the lead character, Jane. But fundamentally, I credit Nancy Meyers and Meryl Streep with creating a woman who is authentic and endearing.
In short, she is a mature adult, who remains hesitatingly open to life’s possibilities. Like so many of us. She is vital, vulnerable, and irresistible. Might SATC writer-director Michael Patrick King have taken a lesson from Nancy Meyers’ book?
Light entertainment that enlightens?
Streep’s character is about joie de vivre, in her connections to her grown children, to her work which she loves, and in the warmth and laughter she hasn’t allowed to abandon her. While the film is light fare in general, it is also enlightening to those who believe that these qualities inevitably desert us as we grow older.
This is the context in which I suggested that any future SATC undertaking go with a Euro flow, looking to the likes of Helen Mirren, Catherine Deneuve, Nathalie Baye, and Fanny Ardant. These beauties are no less powerful or sensual in their forties, fifties, and sixties than they were in their twenties.
Foreheads without the benefits of Botox. Voluptuous, post-menopausal forms. Inherently female. These are women who are thinking, feeling, sexual – and mesmerizing on screen.
More reality, more women, more sex
Is it really so hard to believe that women may mature, fully embracing life as we are, including our sexuality? 
It’s Complicated offers relationships with heart and humor, along with a multidimensional view of men and women as they age.
I want more. More women like Streep as Jane. More reality when it comes to adult characters. More sex, because many of us are more sexual as we age, and not less so.
I imagine this will require more female writers, more female directors, more willingness for Hollywood to put up the funds and gamble on the possibility that real women might enjoy (and pay for) portrayals of real women.
No one said it was easy. But is it really so complicated?
Image of Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin via http:ItsComplicatedMovie.com.
BLW, I must be the only mature woman in America who has not watched a single episode of Sex And The City. Shocker, isn’t it?! I haven’t seen “It’s Complicated”, but I’ve been meaning to rent it. I really don’t watch much tv or take the time out for movies the way I should. However, the next rainy weekend, I will have to designate as a movie weekend. Your post was interesting, but I can’t compare movies since I haven’t seen them. I know, I need to get a life!
It’s Complicated was great! I loved that movie. And I didn’t find it far-fetched that ex’s would want to get back together, even after ten years. Remember, every divorce is different.
Nancy Meyers is quite talented, and I agree she brought a woman’s sensibility and touch to this script and direction. A man could not have made this same movie. I had that same reaction to the Danish film “Brothers” (now remade as an American movie). The original film was directed by a woman, and she did it spot on perfectly.
I’ve never heard of the Danish film you mentioned, DM. I’ll have to poke around and see if I can scare it up. Vicky Christina Barcelona is also on cable these days. Saw that, too. Delightful! Have you seen it?
The subject being adultery, I had no interest in seeing “It’s Complicated”. I love Meryl Streep and I’ve grown to enjoy Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock but I wasn’t too happy about the storyline. Thanks to your recommendation, I may change my mind and give it a whirl. I was a fan of SATC and will probably go see the new movie and hope I find it worth the $8. Thanks for the reviews!
I, too, have never cared to watch Sex and the City. However, I loved Something’s Gotta Give, so I think I’ll give It’s Complicated a chance. As you say, how can you go wrong with Meryl?
As much as I love Meryl Streep, I truly disliked “It’s Complicated.” It may have been the fact I was watching it alone on Christmas Day – the first Christmas my kids had ever spent time alone with their father.
“Vicky Christina Barcelona,” on the other hand, I loved. Watched it last summer or fall.
I agree with Nicki. I felt “It’s Complicated” a bit forced and the ending somewhat confusing after they reunited so successfully. However, I do believe in the premise that anything can happen between two unlikely people. If there is one thing I have learned recently is that relationships are very complex and none are alike. It is when people put their relationship in a box that it becomes forced. I think Meryl’s character got caught in the box and she bailed whereas the characters in Vicky Christina Barcelona were all about leaving the box behind.
So interesting how we all bring our own experiences of marriage and divorce to views of films on marriage and divorce… 🙂
We just watched “It’s Complicated” over the weekend. I really adore Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. I thought the movie was okay. Not great, but definitely enjoyable. I liked the independence and strength and joy of Meryl’s character – like she had really come into her own and found a new part of herself after the divorce.
I wondered if I would get more from the movie if I were a bit older, if there were some nuances I was missing. (Something like watching The Simpsons as a kid. It’s funny, but when you watch it later as an adult you laugh at different parts because you actually understand them.) But I didn’t really like the ending, the somewhat ambiguous wrap up. I guess I prefer my movies with all loose ends tied up!
Eva, I think you touch on a critical point. I do think the movie (It’s Complicated) may sing on a different register for those of us who are a bit older, and also divorced, with all the reinvention that is required afterward. Beyond the divorce issue, I believe the handling of a woman as she matures was very well done. So yes, to fully appreciate it, perhaps it requires being a woman “of a certain age.” 😉
I saw Fanny Ardant for the first time in Ridicule and then briefly in Sabrina. I enjoyed the characters she played but was most taken by her poise, which I imagine is something that only comes with experience. I admire her.
I just watched this movie a few nights ago! Your review is spot-on. I didn’t know what to expect; I just knew that if it had Meryl Streep in it, it just couldn’t be a bomb. I loved it. It made me laugh. As for the 10-year ex affair, I think it played a crucial part in her emotional development. The list of questions for her therapist encapsulated all her “unfinished” business with this guy in her own psyche. The affair and realization that he really wasn’t what she wanted now as a woman of a “certain age” was a great message. How many divorced women find themselves thinking, “What if it could be different now?” I certainly don’t advocate adultery and it was one of the central themes. That said, how poetic was it that the shoe was on the other foot for the mistress that may have caused the split to begin with? As for Alec’s character, it struck me as sad that he personified the male ego that nothing in hand was good enough. That there had to be something better out there when things got tough, and he was more than happy to go look for it.
You touch on so much here, Lisa. I loved how ambivalent (and out right guilty) the lead character felt about the adultery. And I also loved the poetic justice in it – that 10 years later, whether she sought it out or not, the shoe was on the other foot as you say.
Another lesson, which you point out – the maturing male, realizing too late what he had let go. (Streep can pull off anything, can’t she?)
I completely agree with your assessment of La Streep. She could make reading the phone book interesting. That woman had more talent in her pinkie finger than I’ll ever have in my life and I LOVED It’s Complicated. I just saw it last weeked and watched it TWICE…. I rarely can keep my attention riveted enough to watch a movie once. And I pretty much agreed with the whole post. MORE women writers and directors might level the playing field. BTW I’ve never seen SATC either….