film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
The to-die-for cast can’t quite save this melodrama from its trite obviousness, in which rage and grief are matters of tasteful, upscale lifestyle. But they at least make it passingly watchable.
Precious, fatuous, Nancy Meyers–lite rom-com about a privileged rich white lady with no real problems who can’t help but mom her much-younger new boyfriend. Barf.
Cheap, lazy, and limited by its slavish adherence to the found-footage trope. Bonus: features the most cynical use ever of 3D to boost cinema ticket prices.
While at first glance it looks as if this could be a film that represents women well, every potential positive comes with an accompanying negative.
A nice movie about real problems people face in real life, and it deals with them in as sidelong a way as it possibly can, avoiding all strong emotion.
It seems the problems of rich white folk do amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world…
Christ, but I hate Nancy Meyers’ movies. Nancy Meyers, whose every movie looks like Pottery Barn orgasming.
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… It’s not really that complicated, actually. Nancy Meyers makes movies that look like Pottery Barn catalogues, populated by people who aren’t really people. Evidence: The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, and What Women Want. And this looks like more of the same. It’s Complicated opens in the U.S. … more…
“You look like my Barbie doll,” a little girl tells Cameron Diaz. Bingo!
