It's Complicated

While there are some good laughs in the latest from writer-director Nancy Meyers, the film is actually done in by a surprising culprit of bad overacting—none other than the ever-reliable Meryl Streep. The movie is bubble-headed, and she treats it like bad Shakespeare. While others in the cast—including Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin and a very funny John Krasinski—seem to know they are in a silly movie, Streep kills the fun when she talks. Where’s Diane Keaton when you need her? Streep plays Jane, a divorced mom who is forced to mingle with her ex-husband, Jake (Baldwin), and his new girl, Agness (Lake Bell). Jake, who is not having fun with his much-younger wife, notices that Jane is still kind of hot. The two slam a bunch of cocktails and wind up in a hotel room doing unspeakably nasty things, which are punctuated by Jane’s profuse vomiting. They start an affair that is complicated by her dating a bashful architect (Martin). I laughed hard during a pot-smoking sequence, but found myself annoyed by Streep’s shrill performance.