The title of the movie is annoying to Facebook-users and Denise Richards.
This does not include my mom, so she wasn't annoyed at all.
A full house of cackling women gave it a big round of old-school applause at the end! Love that. Take your mother, your sister, your aunt, your 40+ girlfriend.
*spoilers ahead!*
While Meryl Streep was wonderful, of course, it goes without saying, she can act the shit out of a Terms of Service agreement, Alec Baldwin was ridiculously funny.
He's such an a-hole and he is so good at playing a-holes. Bloated, selfish, hairy a-holes. A real pleasure of an a-hole to watch. He cracks me up with just a look.
Steve Martin, once again, is an architect with a tender side. John Krasinski is the cute doting sensitive son-in-law-to-be who played his way into the hearts of every 60+-year-old-woman in the theater. At each appearance on screen, I heard everyone's mother murmur around me, "What a nice boy, what else is he in? The Office? I don't watch that. What a good job he's doing, awwww!" like he's a puppy dog.
I knew, I KNEW, that my mom was thinking, "If only my daughter had married someone as preppy and clean-cut as John Krasinski..." She once tried to hook me up with this little Michael J. Fox-looking-guy that she thought was so adorable for me.
The jokes about droopy boobs, menopausal sex and overactive bladders - I tell ya, freakin scared me - much like Something's Gotta Give. Naturally. Meryl even seemed, dare I say, a bit Diane Keatonish. And I loved her eyewear.
However, this is what Meryl's character does with her life. She is not just a writer with a beach house, juggling two men, like Diane's character in Something's Gotta Give. Oh, no, she is so, soooo, much more.
She's the divorced mother of three, her oldest daughter is planning a wedding (to the wonderful John Krasinski, isn't he just the sweetest guy...), her son just graduated from college, her youngest daughter has just left for college. So she now has an empty nest where she raised the three perfect children. The "nest" is a GORGEOUS perfectly appointed Santa Barbara dream villa. She is also the owner of a big classy bakery. She is also a French-trained pastry chef. She has also decided that she is going to build an addition to her villa because it's not good enough for her, and why? I guess Steve Martin had to play an architect and that was the best way to incorporate that character. And an architect is more interesting than an actuary. She makes effortless perfect dinners and desserts for all of her guests. She has time to shop for new clothes. Also, she has the perfect fantasy garden that supplies her with all the fresh-cut flowers and vegetables her heart desires. The kind of garden that you either spend twenty hours a week managing on your own, or supervising hired help to manage it for you.
The man-juggling and late night chocolate-croissant-making, in addition to running five other things, I could deal with. I mean, she doesn't have a TV and she lives in California and has a shitload of money. You can get a lot of shit done if that's your scene.
But toward the end of the movie, when we saw this lovely MILF strolling through her Better Homes & Gardens gardens, my mom and I nudged each other and exclaimed, "YEAH RIGHT!" That's where the fantasy ended. All belief of Meryl's character flew away. I bought into her up to that point. "Who is she supposed to be, freakin' Martha Stewart?" my mother muttered, and somewhat bitterly I think. Jealous? Nah. Realistic.
The story was a notch above reality, until this fantasy garden was being harvested. A unicorn may as well have trotted into Meryl's kitchen and whinnied for a croque-monsieur to be impaled upon his horn just then. It went beyond complicated. Even Meryl couldn't sell that to me.
The mary-jane scenes, though, and the Skype scene - you know the one I'm talking about - were priceless. It was lots of fun laughing heartily with all the women in the room. That's why we go to the movies.
I love this review, especially her thoughts about the kitchen.
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