It's Complicated: Critic Reviews

It's Complicated is middle-aged porn, the specialty of Meyers, 
 who also set ladies and interior 
 decorators drooling over homes and gardens in 2006's The Holiday.

The truth is that everyone needs a little coddling, which could be the key to Ms. Meyers's peculiar talent: She pampers her audience shamelessly.

For me, Meyers's romcoms have been unwatchable because of the utter fakeness of their leading players: but I must confess, Baldwin and Streep do have that most over-analysed thing, "chemistry."

Meyers uses musical montages and shoots the principals doubling over in laughter in place of crafting witty dialogue. Escapism has its place at the movies, but something this slick is like a lavishly wrapped but empty Christmas present.

The romantic comedy about a divorced couple having an affair manages to be both light on its feet and heavy enough to deliver something of a message.

It's Complicated unleashes an unabashedly, desperately romantic side of Baldwin that we haven't seen before. He doesn't steal this movie so much as grant all Streep's fluttering and twirling and hand-fanning an exuberant counterweight.

Does Nancy Meyers hate women?

Actually, Hollywood, it's very simple: If you're lucky enough to rope pros like Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin into a formulaic comedy that's clearly beneath them, you rise to the occasion.

I found myself wishing for more shallows and fewer depths.

Writer-director Meyers, who's devoted much of her career to midlife American arousal, that she loses her sense of fun.

For Streep, as always, acting is anything but complicated.

Simply put, It's Complicated is a hoot.

It's Complicated is a rearrangement of the goods in Nancy Meyers' bakery, and some of them belong on the day-old shelf.

It's simply a good time, a relatively adult and easygoing conveyance for three ace performers of a certain age, working through a few comic machinations created by writer-director Nancy Meyers.

Streep's dilemma is handled well enough for the movie to accumulate some gravitas as it nears the two-hour mark.

I enjoyed the spectacle of middle-aged people making spectacles of themselves. And I appreciated the film's gentle understanding of how the romance of a parent affects the children.

Nancy Meyers never pushes for a hard truth when she can reach for an easy laugh. She's like an industrial device, stamping out 100 percent pure-plastic midlife female fantasy.

It's Complicated is basically Wild Hogs for smart people, big stars playing below their gifts in a crowd-pleasing movie.

A silly but mostly delectable holiday confection guaranteed to put a smile on your face and keep it there.

Cute and clever though the plot may be, everything is played out in the broadest possible terms without an iota of nuance or subtlety.

Yes, it coulda had more laughs, but in the spirit of seasonal good cheer, let me predict that the best-chocolate-croissant-making montage in Hollywood history is going to help this one clean up at the box office.

The empowerment message is obvious, the strain of trying to be "hip" and edgy in the script shows. But Meyers sets the table for funny people to deliver laughs.

Snappy dialogue and an up-tempo pop soundtrack add to It's Complicated's entertaining mix as director Nancy Meyers proves again that she has a deft hand with rom-coms.

It's really not all that complicated. But it is entertaining. It's pure, simple fun, with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin playing Doris Day and Rock Hudson as they might have been if they had ruled in the sexually knowing oughts, instead of the virginal ear