Divorced... with benefits.
I wouldn't normally have chosen to watch this film. It was lent to me, impromptu, by a colleague with whom I had been talking - positively - about Meryl Streep, praising her for her ability to pull off strongly contrastring roles in Mama Mia and Doubt. But then I thought, why not give it a spin: Xanthe and I can watch it on Valentine's Day!
So, it's clearly a chick flick - which is to say a film proceeding within or alongside a set of audience expectations relating to the loose conventions of the romantic comedy genre - but with such well-seasoned protagonists, definitely one for middle-aged chicks. I have mixed feelings about the film, but it does have some strong comic moments.
The plot plays with an interesting premise: given the opportunity to have a second chance at a relationship with your ex-husband or wife, who previously left you for a much younger partner (to whom they are still married), what happens? Where does happiness lie? Is it with the old familiar partner or might a new love interest win out?
Meryl Streep is in Mama Mia rather than Doubt mode: laughing, smiling, twinkling, chortling, cavorting; doing her winsome best to keep the proceedings light and frothy.
Alec Baldwin very good value as the ex-husband. Steve Martin, the new man on Streep's horizon, looking strangely well-preserved, so that Xanthe was sure he'd had some "work" done, especially as this was an topic raised early in the plot.
The attitude towards physical love-making is quite positive: two key protagonists get very excited about all the great sex they are having and behave very impulsively. By contrast, the young people in the film are all nicely dressed and behave quite demurely.
I was annoyed by the "Greek chorus" of girlfriends Streep's character, Jane, gets together with on occasion, who presumably function partly as our on-screen surrogates (or is it peers?), egging her on. Likewise, I felt that her therapist took a wrong turn in their meeting, in a way that stretched credibility.
The wealth of the main protagonists rather reduced for me the urgency of their personal stakes. At times I felt I couldn't care less about the petty emotional issues of such well-to-do, over-fed people.
Xanthe and I were stunned at the size and opulence of Streep character's home and garden, and couldn't understand why she needed to extend the building, which already seemed quite large enough. We also wondered where the money to pay for it all was coming from. I had thought she was just an employee at the bakery where she worked, but to have acquired so much disposable income, she must surely have been the proprietor.
- Rating: Matinee
- When seen: 14 Feb 2011
- Where seen: Home
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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