In the Land of Women
Like life, Jonathan Kasden’s “In the Land of Women” is messy and never what you expect. It’s also proof-positive that good screenwriting runs in the family. Kasden- along with brother Jake (the director behind “Orange County” and writer-director of the underrated “Zero Effect”)- is the son of Lawrence Kasden, whose work on blockbusters such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” and “Return of the Jedi” is laudible, but overshadowed- for me- by his intelligent and engaging work as a writer-director of films such as “Body Heat,” “The Accidental Tourist,” and “Mumford.”
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. His work here isn’t as polished as his father’s, but Jonathan proves to have a keen ear for dialogue that rings true and characters that engage. Lapses into movie-of-the-week melodrama are regrettable, but redeemed by Kasden’s insistance on following his character’s emotional arcs through to their honest conclusions. You’ll be surprised how important that is in a film like this, where so many potential landmines for cliche exists.
Adam Brody stars as Carter Webb, an L.A. screenwriter- he writes soft porn- whose model/actress girlfriend Sofia has just broken up with him. Emotionally suckerpunched, he decides to head out to Michigan- against the wishes of his supportive mother- and his grandmother Phyllis (played by Olympia Dukakis as a death-obsessed, but fiesty, handful) to take care of her and try to regroup himself after being dumped. He finds his plan alternately easier and complicated when he meets Sarah (Meg Ryan), the housewife and mother across the street with whom he feels an immediate bond with, and whom takes the opportunity to get her teenage daughter Lucy (Kristin Stewart) to ask him out for a movie sometime. Sarah’s got her own complications, however; her husband (Clark Gregg) is supportive, but in the middle of an affair; her relationship with Lucy is strained by past hurts; and she’s facing a personal crisis that puts what’s important in her life into focus, as well as ampliphies the feelings everyone is going through at this moment in time.
At roughly 100 minutes, it seems difficult to believe that Kasden can do little more than a standard level of character development. But as the story moves forward- or actually, the characters move forward- we feel a sense of understanding in how these characters came to become the people we see in the film. The casting does much to aid in that, with Kasden casting actors whom we totally believe in these roles, even if we don’t really know the actors to start. Brody- best known from “The O.C.”- finds the wounded heart of Carter while also showing how this confident wreck deepens his insight of the fairer sex- and life- through deeper interactions with them. As Lucy, Stewart also capably introduces us to a person defined by past hurts; her transition to a healthy self-image- defined by key late scenes with Brody, Ryan, and Dustin Milligan as Eric, the friend of the high school jock she’d been seeing- is convincing and satisfying. As the father/husband, Gregg’s performance trades on his ability to be suspicious while looking- and sounding- wholesome, as if he has things he’s not telling us, although as you can guess from the title, his character isn’t in the film much. As the more precocious younger daughter Paige, Makenzie Vega makes a role that could’ve been deathly annoying (a talkative little sis who lives- by her own admission- vicariously through her sister), but makes her endearing and kidlike, in particular in a scene with Ryan that packs a punch emotionally.
In case you haven’t noticed, Ryan’s Sarah is the character that is, essentially, at the center of this movie. She has scenes with all of the major characters, and it’s the circumstances she’s forced to cope with- Kasden is wise to not say what both the characters already know and the audience can easily guess as to the situation Sarah is forced to deal with- that drive the emotional arcs of each character. This is one of Meg Ryan’s best performances (though I’ll admit to not having seen “When a Man Loves a Woman”); a reminder that she- given the opportunity- is capable of more than just cute romantic comedy and capable of bringing real acting weight to a character, be it the cheery wife-turned-somber widow she played in “Top Gun” or the helicopter pilot/mother whose heroism is called into question in “Courage Under Fire.” There’re moments of that endearing Ryan persona from films such as “When Harry Met Sally…” and “Sleepless in Seattle” to be sure, but they blend effortlessly into a role that plays more on dramatic strengths she’s normally not allowed to show. Her scenes with Brody, in particular, are a showcase; they have a natural chemistry beyond what the script dictates that makes their friendship immediately plausible (though the film- in one of those lapses mentioned earlier- flirts with a romantic attraction that is unnecessary). As a person who’s shared a long-term friendship with an older woman for going on 10 years now, I’ve seen first-hand how such a bond can be beneficial on both ends (it helps that we share many of the same interests and perspectives, hence why it’s lasted as longer than it probably should’ve). Sarah and Carter’s bond is strictly short-term, but will be no less meaningful to either in the years to come because of it.
If “In the Land of Women’s” storyline seems undernourished, it might be beneficial to look closer. It’s characters are more developed than they seem. And if the film lacks any real dramatic momentum, it’s probably because it’s not about an ongoing story but about a moment in time, a key period of transition for its’ main characters. For Sarah, it’s about looking at her life, finding what’s important and pursuing it while letting events in the past that cloud such thinking fade away. For Lucy, it’s about finding direction after a painful childhood experience and realizing that the thing you want and the thing you need are rarely the same thing. And for Carter, it’s about finding some guidance in the right direction both in life and love, and embracing it, even if it comes from the least likely places, and even if it doesn’t seem that way on the surface. The story will continue for each character, as you can tell from the end of the film, but it’s not about where they go, but how far they come. On that end, Kasden’s film resembles Richard Linklater’s wonderful “Before” movies in that it’s open-ended enough to be continued a few years down the road, maybe with each character individually, maybe with some together. I doubt it’ll happen, but who would’ve thought we’d get a follow-up to “Before Sunrise” nine years later, and that it would be so fully embraced by audiences and critics? Stranger things have happened, and remember, life’s never what you expect…especially in Hollywood.
