Writer: Rebecca Miller
Starring: Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Blake Lively
Release Date: November 27, 2009
Length: 1 hour 38 minutes
What kind of story can you get about a 40-year-old, possibly insane housewife? Pippa Lee’s life is the answer. A young, naïve, beautiful girl (Blake Lively), that ran away from home when she was a teenager changed her life dramatically when she got involved with a man (Alan Arkin) too old for her, and married him. Now,the older Pippa (Robin Wright) takes care of everyone in her life. She now has two fully grown children in there twenties. She treats her 80 year old husband as, well…an 80-year old, who might die soon. It seems as if Pippa’s life is almost perfect. The only interference is…she is slowly losing her mind. Written and directed by Rebecca Miller (Arthur Miller’s daughter), The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee was unlike anything I had ever seen before, which is not necessarily a good thing. This film was completely unpredictable. When I thought the movie was original, there would be a cliché. But when I thought this movie had too many clichés, I would be pleasantly surprised by something inventive. You never knew what to expect. This movie was a mix of many different things. When it was done, I felt the film had everything good and bad. It had clichés, however the concept of the film had never been done before. It had its quirks, but it wasn’t an off the wall film. It had its romantic parts, but there was never really much of a love story. And most of all, the film had a stellar cast, but you never felt that it was pretentious or a Hollywood movie. Blake Lively was surprisingly okay as the younger Pippa Lee. Her performance was better than expected. It’s a nice change for her to do a dramatic role, but I think she fits a bit better on Gossip Girl, unfortunately. When I had first heard about this film, I had thought Blake Lively and Robin Wright Penn shared an equal amount of screen time. It was discovered though, that Wright was truly the star of this film. At the beginning it frustrated me how Lively and Penn’s takes on Pippa were so different, and I couldn’t relate at all how they could be playing the same character. Toward the middle I realized perhaps the point was to show how much Pippa changed as her relationship grew with Herb. It showed two completely different sides of Pippa. Two completely different lives. Even though this film featured some of the most well known names in Hollywood, I was most drawn to Maria Bello as Pippa’s mother. She was a complete scene-stealer, and I felt that for the first half of the film, my attention was focused completely on her. Another pleasant surprise was Winona Ryder in a fairly crazy role, as older Pippa’s friend. I found her performance actually quite hilarious. So many times throughout the film, I thought to myself, how could all this much happen in one person’s life. Sometimes I thought it was ridiculous and unbelievable. But then the screen would switch back to Robin Wright Penn as older, quiet, reserved Pippa, who had all this happen to her and yet she goes about her day like a character from Pleasantville. Although the script was more entertaining with Lively’s scenes, I was much more intrigued with the older Pippa. Robin Wright’s performance was so fascinating. She amazingly portrayed a woman having a “quiet” nervous breakdown. After all the things that go on in the film, I was happy for a nice, simple ending. I think I would have been able to say that I liked this film, if it wasn’t for the over the top scenes of Pippa’s teenage years, but…If it wasn’t for Robin Wright’s performance, I might just have actually left the theatre.
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