The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)
A pastiche. The life of a woman who seems to have found normalcy in her middle age, but we see through a series of dozens of flashbacks and little contemporary snippets what got her there.
It's not a cinematic masterpiece, and it isn't written with what you might call genius (the director knows genius--she's daughter of Arthur Miller). But it's very very interesting, and increasingly so. There are gaffes of casting (Keanu Reeves, besides being a thoroughly lifeless actor, is also not enchanting or mysterious enough to be the foil he's set up to be here), and there is a little bit of laziness, or maybe casual leniency, to the editing. Sometimes the flashbacks are tossed out like candy, other times they dwell a bit too much on something that is clearly sensational for our sakes (the pseudo-porn-fantasy stuff).
In all, we watch and are amused and torn and curious. It won't change your life, or your view of what makes someone tick, and it won't strike you that Rebecca Miller is a director to be reckoned with. Not yet. But it has depth and potential and certainly shows that lead actress, Robin Wright Penn, is amazing at her best.
A pastiche. The life of a woman who seems to have found normalcy in her middle age, but we see through a series of dozens of flashbacks and little contemporary snippets what got her there.
It's not a cinematic masterpiece, and it isn't written with what you might call genius (the director knows genius--she's daughter of Arthur Miller). But it's very very interesting, and increasingly so. There are gaffes of casting (Keanu Reeves, besides being a thoroughly lifeless actor, is also not enchanting or mysterious enough to be the foil he's set up to be here), and there is a little bit of laziness, or maybe casual leniency, to the editing. Sometimes the flashbacks are tossed out like candy, other times they dwell a bit too much on something that is clearly sensational for our sakes (the pseudo-porn-fantasy stuff).
In all, we watch and are amused and torn and curious. It won't change your life, or your view of what makes someone tick, and it won't strike you that Rebecca Miller is a director to be reckoned with. Not yet. But it has depth and potential and certainly shows that lead actress, Robin Wright Penn, is amazing at her best.