Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Mike Binder: novelist Sam Shapiro
Robin Wright Penn: mid-40’s Pippa Lee
Alan Arkin: her much older retired publisher husband Herb
Winona Ryder: Sam’s wife Sandra
Blake Lively: the teenaged Pippa Sarkissian
Maria Bello: Pippa’s mother Suky
Robin Weigert: Pippa’s aunt Trish
Julianne Moore: Trish’s photographer roomie Kat
Monica Bellucci: Herb’s first wife Gigi
Ryan McDonald: Pippa and Herb’s lawyer son Ben
Zoe Kazan: their photojournalist daughter Grace
Keanu Reeves: Pippa and Herb’s 35-year-old neighbour Chris

REVIEW
Seamlessly introducing flashbacks is a good way to learn something of Pippa’s earlier life. Amongst several good actors, Robin Wright Penn’s performance really stands out above the rest. Her portrayal of a complex character comes across as real, not only in what she says but with her facial expressions too.

Adequate time is given to flesh out the many characters yet still keeping the run time to a reasonable hour and a half. That in itself is quite a remarkable job.

CLASSIFICATION

for sexual content, brief nudity, some drug use and profanity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
The milk carton has a mind of its own: between shots it moves ever so slightly, sometimes aligned with the cereal box, other times not.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.