Full disclosure: my brother was the First Assistant Director on this movie, and somewhere in the background of one scene is the back of my daughter’s head. Like many of Nancy Meyers’ movies (Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday), It’s Complicated concerns the relatively uncomplicated problems of middle-aged people with beautiful houses, exquisite taste, and a bit of relationship trouble. Here, Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) are the long-divorced parents of a trio of perfect children, the youngest of whom has just graduated, and another of whom is about to be married to Harley (John Krasinski). Jane has a classy bakery, while Jake has a classless younger wife, Agness, whose five-year-old son she had with another man while married to Jake. While Agness (yes, two s’s) drags Jake to fertility treatments to get another baby, he begins to long for the life he left behind. Just as Jane begins to entertain the idea (perhaps, post-mid-life crisis, she can reconnect with the Jake she first fell in love with), a less-complicated option in the form of Steve Martin’s architect, Adam, appears. Adam is designing a major addition to Jane’s already splendid Santa Barbara mansion. He is careful, quiet, and a bit unsure of himself, which is a fun casting against type of Martin, while Jake is brash, a bit reckless, and far more sure of himself than he probably should be.

Jane and Jake’s grown kids are confused by the sudden reappearance of their father in their mother’s life, and Jane is confused about her feelings for Jake and Adam, and Adam is confused about whether or not Jane is actually available. Jake, played with typical mischievous glee by Baldwin, is the one who seems pretty sure about what he wants, namely, to lose the complications of his young wife and her manipulative kid and regain the comfortable security of his original family. Krasinski, as the future son-in-law, provides a number of funny moments, and the movie garners an R rating for an extended scene where Jane and Adam are stoned at a party. It’s Complicated has a number of funny scenes and managed to keep me guessing about just how Jane, who is the central character of the movie, would decide to deal with her complications.