Friday, October 09, 2009

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee


A watchable adult drama because of the stellar and eye candy cast that includes Robin Wright Penn as Pippa, Monica Bellucci, Maria Bello, Blake Lively, Julianne Moore, and Winona Ryder on the female side. The male side has superb Alan Arkin and one of my favorite actors Keanu Reeves. You may wonder how the film got such a cast and I bet it has a lot to do with the Executive Producer that is none other than Brad Pitt.

The story is sort of interesting as tells the tumultuous life of Pippa told with flashbacks as when she moves to a retiring community with much older husband Herb she starts to develop a life crisis and the past comes to her present constantly.

With such a large number of roles is understandable that only Pippa and Herb (Alan Arkin) characters are really well developed and I cannot say that this is Robin Wright Penn’ best performance, but it’s a pleasure to watch her in all the scenes when Pippa is older; Alan Arkin is fabulous with the touches of dark humor and I was most impressed with Blake Lively performance as Young Pippa, as well as with the diverse looks she showed, definitively Lively skills have improved a lot since the Travelling Pants series. The rest of the cast was great in secondary roles and I only regret that Monica Bellucci had more a cameo that a secondary role but still she played the crucial moment that detonated Pippa’s crisis. Also way too short was Julianne Moore’s segment, but have to admit that was fun to watch as the “dangerous” half of the lesbian couple, the other half is Pippa’s aunt; obviously I wanted more, lol!

Production values are good and have to mention that what it looked like the fifties was really good recreated and Maria Bello (playing Pippa’s mother) performance was perhaps the most credible of all thanks to settings, costumes and her acting.

I tend to believe that this is a movie that some will like and some will not. I liked the movie because the stellar cast and didn’t bother me the neurotic and at times claustrophobic tone of the crisis that Pippa lives in the screen and Wright Penn performs so well. This is a talky drama that plays with darkish humor (mostly done by Alan Arkin) that unless you appreciate it you will not like the film.

This is a movie to watch for the splendid cast and some excellent performances, but the storytelling and directing style is not the best.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @ Movie On Companion

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