“It’s Complicated” – An Interesting Divorce Movie

Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin star in “It’s Complicated”. I thought it was a comedy but discovered it was much more.

Here is the trailer….

Meryl Streep’s character is a middle-aged divorced woman who falls for her ex-husband, played by Alec Baldwin, ten years after having divorced him. She has three adult children who are caught in the middle, again. Steve Martin’s character is recently divorced and pursues Meryl romantically. It sounds comical, and there were moments that made me laugh, but the profound moments outnumbered the giddy ones.

The lasting message I took from this movie is that sometimes you can’t completely find closure after a divorce, even after ten years. Divorce is like a death in the family except you keep bumping into the other person, reminding you of the possibilities, the guilt and the consequences of the divorce on your kids. A negative feeling lingers on long after the dust has settled.

Although Alec Baldwin’s character had an affair, Meryl Streep’s character realized that she had made mistakes contributing to the end of their marriage too. Both characters regretted their mistakes, acknowledged their magnetic attraction to each other and their desire to make right those things that went wrong ten years earlier. It was poignant, thought-provoking and interesting.

If you are looking for a laugh, don’t watch this movie. If you are willing to look at the challenges of life after divorce with children, watch this movie. You will soon understand why it is called “It’s Complicated.”