No one cries like Meryl Streep. And no one can make you laugh harder when she's pumping out tears than the guileless icon who has defied Hollywood's inclination for putting actresses out to pasture at 40.
Streep plays Jane Adler, a fiftysomething owner of a Santa Barbara bakery shop who bumps into her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) at a party with his much younger second wife Agnes (Lake Bell).
But the ten years since their 17-year marriage ended hasn't extinguished the torch of desire Jake still carries for Jane. With her youngest daughter going off to college and the other preparing for marriage, Jane's defenses are down.
So when busybody Jake makes his move on Jane, cheating on his wife with his ex-wife, she's bound to tumble, at least for a while.
Though overweight, Baldwin's happily rotund Jake easily outpaces the dopey charms of Jane's romantically famished architect Adam (Steve Martin), who throws his hat into the ring as well.
Writer/director Nancy Myers ("What Women Want") couldn't create a more white-bread vision of upper class ennui if she tried, but Baldwin and Streep rise above their one-dimensional roles with an intoxicating lighthearted lust for life.
"It's Complicated" is a middle-aged romantic comedy that accomplishes what it sets out to do.
Older people need to laugh at dumb stuff too.
Rated R. 114 mins.
