(MORE COMING AFTER LUNCH)
The latest movie written and directed by Amy Heckerling (Clueless). This is about a forty-two year old woman, Rosie (played by Michelle Pfeiffer) who begins a romance with a twenty-nine year old man, Adam (played by Paul Rudd). The movie really is about Rosie and her struggles with the relationship because of her insecurities about dating a much younger man. There is also subplot with her daughter, Izzie, a girl around ten who talks with the insight of a forty year old in that funny way kids do in movies. Izzie likes a cute guy at school -- you know, like, likes-like -- and there is a story about her trying to get the cute guy to like her and Rosie, of course, as the loving mom trying to help her land her man. And that's pretty much it. There's some stuff about Rosie's job as the executive producer of a struggling tv show, but the focus really is on Rosie and Adam and her trying to date a younger man. Or I should say, her trying to deal with her insecurities because there really are no other problems -- Adam is crazy about her, her daughter likes Adam, her ex-husband likes Adam. The only person who has a problem is Rosie.
Now, I'm going to start breaking the movie apart in a minute, but I want to say here that there's a lot of good stuff here. The relationship between Rosie and her daughter is very good and that's definitely where Pfeiffer shines. The daughter has some good stuff too, like these parody songs that are fun (but clearly not written by a ten year old). And for the most part I liked seeing Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd together. He has this dorky, silly, sweet charm that is a nice counterpart to the overworked tv producer. I think, while there's too much inside tv references, the rest is very relatable and I can see a lot of people liking the movie and even some people really loving the movie.
So what happened? Why did this movie not even get a theatrical release in the US?
The biggest problem is the movie is that it becomes repetitious. The only problem between Rosie and Adam is Rosie's insecurity. So we get hit again and again -- she's insecure, she thinks he'll leave her, there are girls younger than her, yada yada yada. Now, I'm not saying that she shouldn't be insecure, but there needs to be more to the situation than that. There are no problem with her child, no problems with her ex-husband, no problems from work (even though he's an actor on her show so she's dating an employee). Even then it might be okay if it said something about WHY women are insecure. But there really isn't anything there. She isn't a dork, she doesn't have weird habits, she isn't a control freak...there's just nothing there to suggest why she's insecure. And by insecure I mean insecure for the whole movie.
Now let's compare that to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. This movie revolves around the question of Can men and women be friends or does sex get in the way? So at first these two people meet and don't get along. Then they meet while both are going through bad break-ups and now they confort each other and become friends. So right away it's saying something about friendship -- people don't just become friends because they are put together, people become friends when they bond over something. Then as they become better friends we see the way it twists and turns. We see them their friends try to push them together, we see them date other people and become jealous, we see them talk about dating and sex so we see each sides POV, and finally we see them deal with their ex-s, the people who broke their hearts before, which both pushes them together and after one night when they do have sex, tears them apart. (So sex does get in the way.) Now, it should be obvious that WHMS is really dealing with this, with friendship and love and hurt, showing this relationship from all sides, and really getting at something about friendship and dating and love.
What does ICNBYW have? Well, Rosie is self-conscious to go out to a bar with Adam, then she is insecure that he will leave her, then she is insecure that he might be flirting with a younger woman, then she is insecure again about another younger woman, and then she gets over it and they are together. There just isn't much there.
So right away there is this big problem -- what's the story about? Well, not much. Then there are a bunch of little problems. Now stories are like rowing -- you've got a bunch of different things going on and when they are all in sink it can help push the story in a very powerful way. Power is important -- you need power so that the story will make as much impact on the viewer as possible. But when elements are out of sink, even a little, they can throw off the rhythm of the whole story, causing it to have less impact. The more elements thatr are out of sink, and the more each element is out of sink, the worse and worse it gets, until at its worse the story isn't even moving forward, but just spinning around in confusion.
So what are some of the out-of-sync in ICNBYW? (And am I the only one who loves it when I can use all initials for a movie?) First, Pfeiffer is 50+ but her character is 42 and Rudd is 40+ but his character is supposed to be 29. Is that on purpose? Are we supposed to really think Rudd is 29 and Pfeiffer is 42? Or is that part of a joke? Then Stacy Dash plays the star of the teen show Rosie runs, but Dash is also over 40 playing a teen actor. Again, is that a joke or are we supposed to buy into it? Gotta be honest -- I didn't really get it. Then there's Adam and Rosie. What works is that Adam is funny and he gets Rosie to have fun. He dances silly, he makes jokes, and acts goofy all the time. He makes her laugh. Except she works on a comedy tv show. Really? She's never met anyone else who was funny while working on a comedy tv show? Also, the idea that he gets her to have fun and play is fine, except she already does that with her daughter -- she loves playing and being silly with her, so it's not like she's forgotten how to be silly. And it's not like she seems incompetent around men. She certainly has no problem steering her daughter so she can get the cute boy she likes.
I could go on bu I have work to do. It was just a very frustrating experience. For stories to work you need to know what you want to say and then you brainstorm characters and situation and ideas that will help you say it in a way that makes the most impact. This felt like a hodgepodge. What I wish it had been...a woman working in an industry obsessed with youth, who begins dating a much younger guy and realizes that the most important thing about youth isn't age, but about being willing to play and enjoy life.
And that story is there in the movie. It's just muddled. And it's still a good movie worth watching, but if that story could have been told really clearly and powerfully it would have been amazing.
--Paul
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