Tagline: Divorced… with benefits.
It’s Complicated movie storyline. Jane Adler (two-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep) is the mother of three grown kids, owns a thriving Santa Barbara bakery / restaurant and has-after a decade of divorce-an amicable relationship with her ex-husband, attorney Jake (Alec Baldwin). But when Jane and Jake find themselves out of town for their son’s college graduation, things start to get complicated.
An innocent meal together leads to several bottles of wine, which in turn becomes a laugh-filled evening of memories about their 19-year marriage… and then to an impulsive affair. With Jake remarried to the much younger Agness (Lake Bell), Jane is now, of all things, the other woman.
Caught in the middle of this renewed romance is Adam (Steve Martin), an architect hired to remodel Jane’s kitchen. Also divorced, Adam starts to fall for Jane, but soon realizes he’s become part of an unusual love triangle. Should Jane and Jake move on with their separate lives, or has the passage of time made them realize that they really are better together than apart? It’s…complicated.
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday) brings moviegoers her latest film with an all-star cast. With It’s Complicated, she directs a comedy about love, divorce and everything in between. Joining the three stars of It’s Complicated are John Krasinski as Streep and Baldwin’s son-in-law-to-be, Harley, as well as three up-and-coming performers who play the ex-couple’s grown children-Catlin Fitzgerald as Lauren, Zoe Kazan as Gabby and Hunter Parrish as Luke.
İnterview with Nancy Meyers
What drew you to this subject?
Unbeknownst to me, I think I was drawn to the subject of divorce. Not the bitter side of the break-up, but the post-divorce world exes find themselves in and how their relationship, in many many ways, never really ends. I didn’t realize this was the subject I was writing about until I was nearly done with the script.
What made you want to make this film?
I felt the subject was one I knew well and one my entire family has lived through… not the affair of course, but the day-to-day post divorce world. The bumping into one another, figuring out how to still parent together, how to live in the same town together. Notice how much the word “together” still exists once you’re divorced?
How much of the film is autobiographical? Can you talk a bit about the way you use your own life in your work?
I’ve always used elements of my own life in my writing. What else do I really know? Private Benjamin was a woman my age, leaving home and figuring out what she wanted to be. Did I ever join the army? No. But were her parents much like mine? Yes, they were. And her journey, although different than my journey to Hollywood, were both life changers.
Irreconcilable Differences was about a couple trying to keep their sanity and values when success comes knocking. This was made after Private Benjamin, and it was the story we did not want to happen to us. Baby Boom was the story of a woman juggling her work and her child and took an honest look at how the corporate world viewed working mothers. It was a bit of a how-to story… how to survive it all while doing it all. The Father of the Bride years, were the years where our family was growing and it was easy to see how a parent would resist a wedding because, after all, Father of the Bride was about a parent not wanting to lose his daughter. Those were happy movies to make in very happy years in my life.
I made The Parent Trap for my 11-year-old daughter. The original was a family favorite, and I wanted to update it. It’s a great girl empowerment movie. The movie is dedicated my daughter Hallie. That was followed by my divorce, and the first thing I wrote was a rewrite of a movie I renamed What Women Want. It was a great idea that I had a wonderful time writing. What a fantasy. If men knew how we thought, the world would be a better place. I found myself writing very personal things for the Helen Hunt character. Something’s Gotta Give followed that. Yes, there’s a lot of me in that story. The Holiday was a chance for me to get away from myself a little, but I found I had way too much in common with Kate Winslet’s character. And now It’s Complicated… well, that’s a complicated one to explain.
What is it about Jane that is like you?
I’d say Jane and I are similar in many ways but perhaps not as much as you’d expect. She’s a lot braver than I am. As she says in the film, she “experimented with a part of herself.” I’d rather experiment with a character in a movie than actually make the choices she makes, but that’s why she was so fun for me to write.
Did you ever consider the possibility that Jane might end up with Jake?
Never. I wanted Jane to be happy without Jake. She’s earned that.
What are you saying through the choice of which man she ends up with?
Jane was stuck in the shadow of her marriage. She slipped back in momentarily and that’s maybe all she needed to finally come out the other side. I don’t know that she “ends up” with Adam, but I imagine them as a couple with real potential.
Can you talk more about the scene in which Jane explains to her kids why she did this? Talk more, if you can, about the role of the kids in the movie-how do Jane’s obligations to her children effect what she does in the film? Is the same true for Jake?
When Jane has to explain what she’s done to her children, I imagined that would be one of the toughest moments in her life. Even parents have the right to make some choices for themselves, but when the kids find out about the affair, Jane is forced to face her kids and open up to them as a woman, not just a mother. That’s a hard place to be. Meryl does a great job in conveying that private pain while still holding onto her dignity.
Jake makes a case in the movie that the problems that drove he and Jane apart are now gone. Is he right? Do you believe this?
Yes, those are the problems couples face with two jobs and three kids. Life is exhausting in those years and the relationship, the thing you count on never gets enough tending. Some couples weather the storm; others can’t. So, Jake’s argument is a good one. The problems of 10 years ago are gone but, unfortunately, they are no longer the people they were 10 years ago. Life has moved them forward. They’re not frozen in time. I think they both try to get back to that old place, but both ultimately know they can’t.
Jane talks about how she now can admit that she has culpability with Jake in how their marriage ended. Why can she say this now but not 10 years prior? Can you talk about how this occurred to you, what it means and how important it is in the story?
I know when Jane admits this to Jake, she has never fully said this, even to herself. And when she tells Jake this it’s because her shrink told her to “Let go.” She takes that literally-she let’s go of the hurt, she let’s go of her guilt, she lets go of her need to tell the story of her divorce the ways she’s been telling it for all these years. That frees her to finally walk away but, at this moment in the story, she thinks it frees her to get close to Jake. But I chose this moment for Adam to call and take the first step in dating her. It’s a sign, in a way.
Much of the story is about a couple moving forward in a new relationship while looking back at their history. Is this a healthy thing?
Probably not, but it gives them a chance a lot of divorced people wish they had. Their conversations are healthy ones to have, but most of us never get the opportunity for that closeness to express these things to our exes.
Did Jane and Jake do this while they were married? How did they fail each other? Were they right to split?
Gee, best of all worlds scenario: could they have made it with the right counseling? I don’t know. I honestly doubt it. You can’t take the wisdom you now have and apply it back then because back then you weren’t quite there, and I doubt anyone could have said this to them then and they would have been able to hear it. Anger and hurt are a dangerous combination of feelings.
Why does Jane go forward in the affair?
That’s a good question and one that plagues Jane for much of the movie. I think the list she made and reads aloud in her psychiatrist’s office is correct. It’s all of those things. No simple answer, but a part of her knows she will come out the other side more knowing… and she does.
Why does a woman as strong and together as Jane is care what her friends and her shrink say about what she does?
We all care about what others think, don’t we? Being strong and together doesn’t mean you are invincible. And maybe she’s tired of being so strong. This is an unusual and unlikely situation, and Jane reaches out for some guidance to her closest friends and her doctor. The fact that everyone encourages her to explore this helps push the affair along, but Jane comes to her own conclusions about it all rather quickly.
Is there a real future for Jane and Adam? Where are they headed?
I see them taking a great trip together as their first step. Maybe Paris or London. I think they’d be great travel companions. I see Adam getting them two rooms and, after a couple of nights, one room. From there, I think all is possible.
Is the movie hopeful about relationships?
Yes, I think it ultimately is. I think the movie is realistic about relationships. Every character has a failed relationship that in a way has defined them. Each is wounded and they recognize that in each other. That’s what brings them all together, but, ultimately, each moves away from their past…so I find that hopeful.
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
It’s Complicated (2009)
Directed by: Nancy Meyers
Starring: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, John Krasinski, Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, Hunter Parrish, Pat Finn, Rita Wilson, Rita Wilson, Alexandra Wentworth, Zoe Kazan, Nora Dunn, Bruce Altman, Caitlin Fitzgerald
Screenplay by: Nancy Meyers
Production Design by: Jon Hutman
Cinematography by: John Toll
Film Editing by: Joe Hutshing, David Moritz
Costume Design by: Sonia Grande
Set Decoration by: Beth A. Rubino
Art Direction by: W. Steven Graham
Music by: Heitor Pereira, Hans Zimmer
MPAA Rating: R for some drug content and sexuality.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: December 25, 2009
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