It's Complicated

Middle-aged women love Nancy Meyers. That's not an opinion, its a fact. That's not necessarily a bad thing either it's just interesting to me. Most women seem to see some type of self-identification with the character's in her films. Which always amazes me sense her scripts always play out more like fantasies than reality. I guess it's probably a bit of wishful thinking as well.
Take her latest effort for example, It's Complicated. By all accounts pretty typical Meyers material. Every woman under the sun I talked with loved it. I think I can see why too. It was decently funny. Had one of the greatest actresses on the planet. Not to mention two of the funniest actors alive as well going for it. A clever and cute premise and a script with a few pretty good laughs. Most importantly though it was aimed at a female demographic that doesn't get a lot attention from Hollywood these days, OLDER women.
Now yes, all of those things listed above are positive attributes. What turns me into a bit of grinch though is that I find most of Meyers work to be slightly elitist. What I mean by that is her films are always dealing with the problems of rich and strongly independent people that to be honest don't come off as feeling genuine. For example Streep's character is a very well off rich white woman who run's her own bakery, owns a beautiful story book house in the hills of Santa Barbara County, and is part of a family that is just to perfect to be taken seriously. None of the characters in this story feel real the slightest bit. This criticism might sound a bit snobby but I guess Im just a little sick of Meyers shtick. The only thing that kept me watching this thing was Baldwin who at this point in his career I could watch reading the phonebook.

Give me something fresh next time Nancy. C.

2009