mid-love crisis

Somewhere along the way on my travels, I managed to pack in four movies that may or may not come to Alice (the b-grade ones – more likely).  Here’s a one-sentence review of each to guide you in your summer movie-going:

Bright Star: If only John Keats had had a fat older sister, a mute pianist for a mother or a misguided self-diagnosis of schizophrenia instead of Abby Cornish with a brown rinse, his life might have been a whole lot more interesting.

The Lovely Bones: Apparently heaven looks remarkably like a set from The Lord of the Rings, er, Godzone Country, Niwzillun.

It’s Complicated: Meryl seems to be cooking up a storm on the big screen these days.

Did you hear about the Morgans? You can't take the New Yorker out of SJP, even in a witness protection program.

The first two were worth seeing in terms of their production values alone (which is a substantial part of films being cinematic, after all), and Peter Jackson did manage to get rid of some of the more noisome heaven sequences from the original Lovely Bones.  My excuse for seeing these of course is that ‘it’s all about gahn-rah, darhling’, and that I have to keep up with what’s going on with the rom-com.  Overall, I would say that if you wanted quality light entertainment, your best option is probably It’s Complicated.

Something that interested me about this season’s offering was the prevalence of middle-aged love stories: Did you hear about the Morgans? stars young mid-lifers, Hugh Grant and SJP (tho I think we’re meant to believe she’s still of child-bearing age) and It’s Complicated features older mid-lifers, Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin (actually, Baldwin’s not that much older than Grant in real life; he just looks it).  I’m trying to remember what antecedents there might be for older romantic comedy leads and the idea of mid-life love: how old were Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy in some of their later numbers?  How old were we meant to believe they were?

This doesn’t apply to older man/younger woman-type scenarios, typically featuring Jack Nicholson or Michael Douglas, in which we’re meant to suspend a huge amount of belief by pretending either of these gentlemen’s bums are remotely attractive.  Of course, in a film like It’s Complicated and Diane Keaton As Good as it Gets, the older female protagonists spend much time ruminating about the loss of their physical attractiveness in a way that older gent romantic protagonists, from memory, don’t.  The Alec Baldwin character in It’s Complicated is, however, rather charmingly caught out by the restrictions of ageing and the accompanying loss of vitality at times.

I do wonder if this film and recent others like As Good as it Gets and Then She Found Me signal babyboomers will revolutionise the rom-com and age the genre.   Jane Campion has already been muttering that she’ll only make films about ageing heroines from now on.  (All this, of course, just as I try to write a rom-com featuring twenty-something lesbians.  I could take a leaf from my mother’s book and leap ahead: not to be outdone by her daughter, she plans to write a mini-series set in a nursing home about the ’rights of family versus the rights of friends’.  Anyone know an HBO EP?).

A minor niggle: I don’t want to be too tedious but why is Meryl cooking so much these days?  Her onscreen beaux are respectively a foreign diplomat (Stanley Tucci); an architect (Steve Martin); and a top lawyer (Alec Baldwin).  Could it possibly an attempt to take the edge off having an older woman on screen by making her all maternal and caring and sharing by cooking for others?

I mean, I remember when Meryl worked in a nuclear reactor and had her own farm in Africa.  But she was young in those days.

Comments

[Pavlov's Cat]

Did you see her in Mamma Mia? Another charmingly absurd later midlife romantic plot thingy. But why, oh why, did they let Pierce Brosnan sing?

Also, tx for confirming my prejudices, erm, suspicions about Bright Star.

[elsewhere]

No, does she cook pasta for everyone?

I gave MM a miss, even tho it was on in Alice. My mother's comment, after I forced her to watch Juno: 'Well dear, this was much better than Mamma Mia, which XXX made me watch.'

Many of the reviews of BS are very positive, so perhaps I'm being too harsh (as usual). You might get more out of it than me, as you know much more about the period.

[Pavlov's Cat]

I can't remember whether she cooks pasta or not, but she is certainly a mother-earth figure and there's a certain amount of stylised housework. The movie is worth seeing, if one is interested in Meryl, to hear her sing and watch her high-energy dance routines, which considering that she's in her late 50s should cheer every woman up. There's also a proper actor's performance from Colin Firth and a brilliant turn by the great Christine Baranski.

[linda]

I found the Lovely Bones difficult to assess as I too, had read the book. I thought the movie overall was pretty good. Alex (the 15 year old), spent the whole movie playing paper scissors rock with himself. No foe everyone, I guess.
AND PS: read a recent interview with jane Campion. In her early 50's, she characterises herself as 'unfuckable'. Harsh, yes?

[elsewhere]

Yes, well, I imagine she might be a bit daunting, rather than unf&ck*blw.

But look at Susan Sarandon! Go Susan.

Overall, I thought LB was good, esp the attention to 70s/80s detail. It seemed a bit long tho I thought a lot of the extraneous heaven stuff had been well left out. I didn't think it conveyed the sense of the implosion of the family after the death of a child quite as well as the book does.

P.S. Be warned that if you see It's Complicated, the family scenes with the adult kids are a bit droopy at times.

[Pavlov's Cat]

I haven't read the Campion interview, but if I (from the lofty perspective of my mid-fifties) were to use the word '*nf*ckable' about myself or any of my contemporaries, I would be using it in mockery of those for whom f*ck*bility is any kind of serious concept. Either she's being ironic or she's caved in to the abject self-deprecation of the sub-cougar. If the latter, sad.