It's Complicated vs Julie & Julia

Much fuss is made about Meryl Streep’s versatility and dependability as an actor, and it’s all warranted, I’d say. But there’s something else to her, right? It’s not just talent. Part of Meryl Streep’s appeal lies in her warmth as an actor. In The Hours, when Streep’s character cracked eggs, it didn’t just seem like a task the actress had performed before, it seems like a task that particular character was performing out of love. Hey, I like Glenn Close too, but I don’t want her making me breakfast. When Meryl Streep hugs the actors who play her kids in It’s Complicated, she hugs them like she gave birth to them. Her character in It’s Complicated lives in a crazy huge house, but I bet Streep knew what was in every drawer.

Streep plays Jane, a woman who owns a busy daytime restaurant. It’s one of those places that’s always busy, everything is delicious and to-go, and the doors are locked by dark. Jane has been divorced from Jake (Alec Baldwin) for a decade, and has three kids, one of whom is moving out, and another graduating from college. Jane is a bit of an empty-nester, but more significantly, she feels like building the kitchen she’s always wanted. Her existing kitchen is enormous, probably about the size of the one in her restaurant, but I suppose she knows what she wants.

Away for the weekend for their son’s graduation, Jane and Jake find themselves in the bar for dinner. This is a romantic comedy, so Jake’s new wife is one-hundred percent unlikeable. She’s pretty, but in a harsh way; her go-to expression is a scowl, and she’s not nice. Meanwhile, Jane has never looked better, doesn’t want more kids, has a sharp sense of humor, her own money, and is drunk in this very hotel. They wind up in bed. Jake is blissful; Jane is mortified. They both had fun, though, and continue, in Jane’s home, in hotel rooms, in secret. These scenes are surprisingly frank and funny. I’m pretty sure no one’s ever grabbed Meryl Streep’s crotch in a movie before, but Baldwin does, hilariously. Jake doesn’t have regrets. He thinks it’s the best possible version of their previous relationship: they’re mature, they’re free, they have their own money, they know what they like and don’t like, they can go to their own homes afterward, before the fights start. But, like the title says, there are complications. First of all, Jake’s not free, he’s married to a tan nightmare (she’s played by Lake Bell, who I’m sure is lovely in real life, but who is here just to be disliked, and succeeds. Is that a good performance?). And Jane is more essentially good than Jake, and must contend with her conscience. At first, she’s giddy, confessing to her girlfriends that she’s a slut. Jane’s friends are well-cast, laughing and cheering her on in pretty much the same way they would be in the theater if they weren’t in the movie. And, she’s worried about her kids, who are grown, but scarred by the divorce (even though both parents live nearby, are loaded, happy and get along? Okay.) And, she’s met a sensitive new architect for her kitchen project, and might want him instead to giggle about with her girlfriends.

He’s played by Steve Martin, in a performance so gentle and cozy he literally has a scene trying on old sweaters. He’s perfect for Jane! He wants to make her kitchen special! But if Jane is growing closer to Steve Martin, shouldn’t she break it off with Jake? What if Steve Martin finds out about Jake? What if they all get stoned together at a graduation party (it’s the film’s funniest scene, and has a bit of silent comedy between Alec Baldwin and John Krazinski that I cannot do justice here.)?

It’s Complicated was written and directed by Nancy Meyers, who also made Something’s Gotta Give and What Women Want. While the lazy titling of her movies bugs me some (It’s Complicated could just as easily be called Something’s Gotta Give or What Women Want), It’s Complicated is refreshingly funny and mature, even as it hammers home certain romantic comedy clichés you’ve seen in countless movies. Jane and Steve Martin have a romantic dinner at her place with Jake watching from a nearby window, for example.  And Jane and Steve Martin have a musical montage of cooking-as-sex. And Jake’s evil wife is out to make a baby and times their sex by her ovulation cycle. But the leads are winning and funny, and Meryl Streep has undeniable chemistry with Baldwin and Martin (I’m sure his character has a name).

Meryl Streep’s other big movie this year, Julie & Julia, was directed by Nora Ephron, who is primary known for inventing the modern romantic comedy (Ephron’s world is much like Woody Allen’s, except her characters have seen his movies.), but once in a while can abandon that world altogether…almost.

The Julie of the title is Julie…someone. Julie (Amy Adams) lives in New York with her husband. She has a day job that leaves her stressed and unfulfilled, and a group of mismatched careerist monster girlfriends that won’t put down their phones and only exist in movies. In life, you’re free to use your phone for work and play. In the movies, phones mean work, and they mean you’re insensitive. Julie’s not though. She’s thoughtful and funny, and looking for her purpose. She decides to start a blog. Her husband thinks it could focus on her cooking, and from there, Julie makes the leap to cooking every single recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

As Julie cooks, she finds a purpose, a hero, and a kindred spirit of sorts, in the real Julia Child, who is shown, not in flashbacks (because who would be flashing back, exactly? None of the characters in Julie’s world ever met her), but more in an alternate storyline. We see Julia’s years in Paris, living with her devoted husband (Stanley Tucci), trying to find her way. Julia doesn’t know what she can do. She doesn’t want to be a hat-maker, or a homemaker. She wants to be a chef, to study and work in France (actually, she never wants to leave). Julia has big passions, and a big heart (big everything, really, she towers over her husband and the people of Paris), and seems to experience surprise and joy everywhere she turns. Her story, of those years in Paris, and how they led her back to the United States and television history is fascinating. Which brings us to the primary issue of Julie & Julia. Julie is living her life as an exercise. It’s not a tribute to Julia Child, or some kind of vicarious thrill-seeking. It’s just the exercise of doing something someone else already did, just because. And it never looks that hard, or that fun, or like much of an accomplishment, really, because, and I can’t believe no one else has said this: JULIE HAS AN EFFING BOOK OF INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE HER GOAL.

Julia Child’s life would have made a great movie on its own. Prior to the era depicted in the movie, Child and her husband worked for the government during the war. Isn’t that interesting? Don’t you want to hear about it? Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci are impeccable in the movie, and every ten or fifteen minutes, we have to check back in and see if Julie’s eggs are ready. Don’t care. Do. Not. And yeah, I know, Julie’s part of the book. I don’t think the book sounds very good either. Julie Child wrote her autobiography too, you know. Make that movie, Ephron. Ah, but then the romantic comedy bits might have to be left out. Even if they’re part of the true story, they feel contrived in the movie. Julie’s husband is supportive, funny, and wolfs down her food like a caveman, yet by the film’s climax, he’s part of a false crisis involving whether or not Julie will choose him or…cooking awesome dinners every night? Plus dessert? That’s his problem? Of course not, but Ephron plays it up, and for a few scenes, Julia & Julia is forced to act like Julie’s husband is Greg Kinnear and cooking is Tom Hanks.

Which isn’t to say Amy Adams doesn’t carry her half of the story admirably. She’s as plucky and spunky and cute and witty and Meg Ryan-ish as any modern Nora Ephron character could hope to be.  But even with her name listed first, it’s not Julie’s story.  We know that eventually a Julie scene will give way to her inspiration, and the tables will turn back to Paris fifty years ago, to that story of a true original, and the true original who plays her. Nothing complicated about that.

It’s Complicated: B-

Julie & Julia: B