THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE are nothing more than a retrospective of how a bored mother and wife of an aging man longs for the unfulfilled passion of youth. Writer/Director Rebecca Miller ('Proof', 'Personal Velocity', 'The Ballad of Jack and Rose') has unraveled a life grown stale and offers her main character a way out. The film is solid though not all that original but it is saved by some fine work by lead actress Robin Wright Penn.
Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is a frustrated wife of aging Herb Lee (Alan Arkin) and feels her life slipping away from her when Herb moves them out of Manhattan to a retirement community. Herb is much older than Pippa and their children are now grown and have poor communication with their parents. What happens in the film is a series of flashbacks to her childhood, her drug-tossed teenage years and how she coped with her wholly dysfunctional mother (Maria Bello), keeping her under her thumb until she launches into a life of discovery through her aunt (Robin Weigart) and partner (Julianne Moore), confusing her to the point that she ultimately marries the established publisher, Herb, a man who lacked passion, and now is stuck in a tedious life that makes her have nightmares and sleepwalk. Her only act of escape is an affair with the loner son of a next-door neighbor Chris (Keanu Reeves). As Herb dies Pippa learns the meaning of motherhood at last and begins to sense life re-blooming - if a bit late.
The story is bit lopsided and with time the audience begins to feel the frustration of those around Pippa instead of feeling the frustration of Pippa. But the cast , especially Robin Wright Penn, is exemplary and in the end the film is fairly entertaining.
Grady Harp
Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is a frustrated wife of aging Herb Lee (Alan Arkin) and feels her life slipping away from her when Herb moves them out of Manhattan to a retirement community. Herb is much older than Pippa and their children are now grown and have poor communication with their parents. What happens in the film is a series of flashbacks to her childhood, her drug-tossed teenage years and how she coped with her wholly dysfunctional mother (Maria Bello), keeping her under her thumb until she launches into a life of discovery through her aunt (Robin Weigart) and partner (Julianne Moore), confusing her to the point that she ultimately marries the established publisher, Herb, a man who lacked passion, and now is stuck in a tedious life that makes her have nightmares and sleepwalk. Her only act of escape is an affair with the loner son of a next-door neighbor Chris (Keanu Reeves). As Herb dies Pippa learns the meaning of motherhood at last and begins to sense life re-blooming - if a bit late.
The story is bit lopsided and with time the audience begins to feel the frustration of those around Pippa instead of feeling the frustration of Pippa. But the cast , especially Robin Wright Penn, is exemplary and in the end the film is fairly entertaining.
Grady Harp