Nancy Meyer’s continues to spread her charming, joyful humour with this typically gentle romcom. As ever with her films, It’s Complicated features actors a little older than those you’d expect to find in a mainstream romantic comedy, and all the houses look enviably divine. Meryl Streep plays a divorced, posh-cafe owner who lives in a big house (which she’s planning on extending) and has three teenage-to-adult children. But, when staying in New York to attend her son’s graduation, she rekindles her love life with her ex-husband, Alec Baldwin. But there are problems afoot in the form of Steve Martin. He’s Meryl’s house-designer, who’s planning her extension. She rather likes him, he rather likes her. It sounds perfect, if only she wasn’t sleeping with her ex.
This is lifestyle-porn in the extreme, and all the more delicious because of it. It isn’t perfect – the plot isn’t as tight as it could be, and there is a weird extended scene which glamourises and normalises cannabis use, but generally speaking this is a warm, fluffy delight.
It’s Complicated (2009), directed by Nancy Meyers, is released on blu-ray disc and DVD in the UK by Universal Pictures, Certificate 15.
