IT’S COMPLICATED – nancy meyers – 0.7 / 10

Make no mistake, It’s Complicated is porn for middle-aged woman. Jane Adler (Meryl Streep, in shrill Mamma Mia mode) is the walking talking embodiment of everything a fiftysomething woman could possibly want. She’s the chef / owner of a successful restaurant. She has three grown children who are all beautiful, well adjusted and well on their way to being successful. She has a group of friends who fall all over each other to tell her how great she is. She’s got a fabulous home complete with a huge garden (both of which seem to magically require no upkeep). The architect designing the addition that she’s planning (which will double the size of her house) is head over heels in love with her. And now her ex-husband, Jake (Alec Baldwin, happily reveling in his physical shortcomings), even though he’s remarried to a hot thirty-year-old, finds her irresistible. The dialogue in the film is pretty much an unending stream of compliments to her and everyone seems to appreciate and respect her. Who wouldn’t want to be Jane?

THE HURT LOCKER – kathryn bigelow – 7.8 / 10

There are a few pieces of advice you often hear in relation to movies. One of them that’s undoubtedly true is that a good ending forgives a lot. A film that has a solid ending leaves the audience walking out of the theater feeling good about the movie and thus more likely to talk positively about it. You might call this The Sixth Sense effect. The reverse is also true. A great movie that ends poorly cancels out all the good will it’d built up to that point and leaves the audience feeling unsatisfied. You could call it the Unbreakable effect.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM – paul greengrass – 9.3 / 10

As anyone who’s talked with me (or, more accurately, listened to me talk) about movies for any length of time can tell you, I generally hate movies that employ a shaky handheld camera aesthetic. In fact, I even disliked it pretty severely in The Bourne Supremacy, this film’s immediate predecessor. The look is meant to convey immediacy and a you-are-there sense of documentary realism. But for reasons I’ve detailed elsewhere, that never works for me. It succeeds only in making the film in question seem cheap and slapdash. Mostly it just makes we me want to send the director a gift certificate for a tripod. But then along comes The Bourne Ultimatum, the exception that proves the rule.