Customer Reviews

In the Land of Women

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Kasdan Family has made a significant mark on the better films of Hollywood and Jon Kasdan (writer/director of IN THE LAND OF WOMEN) holds those values of fine cinema intact. Having appeared as an actor in some films of his father Lawrence Kasdan (Grand Canyon, The Big Chill, Body Heat, Mumford, Dreamcatcher, The Bodyguard, etc), he has not only inherited his father's credo of making meaningful statements about life as we are currently living it, he has absorbed the fluid character development of those films and added his own sensitive touch with graceful dialog. He is a talent to watch.

Soft porn writer Carter Webb (Adam Brody in a very fine performance) lives in Los Angeles near his depressed mother (JoBeth Williams) and has just been dumped by his actress girlfriend Sofia Buñuel (Elena Anaya). When his mother learns of her mother's failing state, the distraught Carter offers to travel to suburban Michigan to stay with his grandma Phyllis (Olympia Dukakis). Once in picturesque Michigan Carter deals with his lovable but eccentric grandma and meets the across the street neighbors - mother Sarah (Meg Ryan in fine form), daughters Lucy (Kristin Stewart) and the younger Paige (Makenzie Vega), and errant husband Nelson (Clark Gregg). In this setting of a 'woman world' Carter is key to aiding the various maladies of each of the women while addressing his own disappointing failed relationship. The manner in which he intervenes by simply being present and tender and caring makes a positive impact on not only those around him but also on his own life and talent as a meaningful writer.

In what could have been a soupy chick flick Jon Kasdan has instead provided a script that has a healthy dose of homespun philosophy and has guided his multi-talented cast to offer some of their finest moments on film. This is an entertaining movie, but it is also a balm for viewers who have experienced life-threatening illness, broken homes, coping with the elderly, and ultimately coping with death. It simply works. Grady Harp, October 07

I whole-heartedly enjoyed "In The Land of Women" when I first saw it back in April during its brief run in cinemas. Needless to say, I have been so looking forward to the DVD release since then.

I just got my DVD today, and it is completely a bare bones disc, unless you count the trailers at the beginning of the disc. A good movie, but a poor DVD release.

`In the Land of Women' had great potential to be a dramatic and moving character study. Sadly it focuses too much on being appealing to the teenage crowd and so it loses a sense a maturity in parts. It is still a good movie; in fact my wife and I enjoyed it very much, I just feel that it could have, and should have been better. There are things placed within this film that you can tell are there to draw a particular crowd, but then there are moments that scream out with a subtle maturity that I only wish had been consistent throughout.

The film revolves around Carter Webb, a screenwriter for the adult entertainment industry. After his celebrity girlfriend Sophia breaks his heart he decides it would be a good idea for him to leave the L.A. life behind and find himself. So, when his mother informs him that his grandmother is paranoid she may die soon he takes that as his opportunity of escape and makes the trip out to Michigan to visit her. His grandmother Phyllis is apparently delusional, but she a riot and so it's a welcomed delusion. Carter soon meets the Hardwicke's who live across the street from Phyllis. He soon forms an attachment with the mother Sarah and the teenage daughter Lucy and throughout their time together they change each others lives drastically.

The Hardwicke family has a lot of demons trapped in the closet, especially Sarah and Lucy, and for some reason they feel a comfortableness with Carter that allows them to get things off their chest. There is truth in the idea that there lies a certain comfort with strangers and I think that plays a large role in understanding this film. Some have balked at the fact that Sarah and Lucy would not divulge huge family secrets to a complete stranger but I beg to differ. Sometimes we need sounding boards and it's much easier to sound off on someone not emotionally invested in your or your problems, someone that can't judge you because they don't know you. Sarah and Lucy have a lot they keep bottled up because there is no one for them to talk to about, but now they have Carter.

Adam Brody has been breaking out in a large way the past few years due to his stint on `The O.C.' and this is really his first leading role. He handles it well enough. There are certain aspects of his character I felt were forced in order to make him `cool' in the eyes of teenagers and I didn't particularly like that. Kristen Stewart's (can you believe this is the same little girl from `Panic Room'?) character Lucy is another one of those overly clichéd characters. Every stereotype in the book is thrown at her as far as how a rebellious teenage daughter would act. She handles the role decently enough; I just wish they would have given her more. Olympia Dukakis is hilarious as Phyllis and she has some of the most memorable lines. The real standout here though is Meg Ryan who tackles her `sick mom' character with real warmth and conviction. As Sarah you feel really connected to her. I have always love Meg Ryan and really wish she would be given more attention. She is a very capable actress who deserves more accolades for her impressive body of work.

In the end `In the Land of Women' works well. It fleshes out some nice character traits, especially when in regards Carter and Sarah whose relationship is the most interesting of all. I wish they had dropped the stereotypes though; left out the token party scene or the `teenage smoking' bit but it's not really enough to complain too much. There are such sweet moments (one I particularly enjoyed was when Carter sits down to write the children's book he told his grandmother he wrote for a living) that I began to really wish the script had been tweaked to reach an older audience. I guess that is my only complaint. This is a film targeted towards the young when if it had been adjusted to target the middle-aged crowd could have turned into a genuinely moving adult drama. Instead it remains a very well constructed teenage drama. Three and a half stars for a film that with a little more maturity could have easily been four and a half or even five.

This 2007 movie reeks of the puppy-warm hypersensitivity of CW/WB teen-angst dramas like Dawson's Creek and Felicity and even has Adam Brody, recently of Fox's The O.C., as its star. That's not to say that the story, written by filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan's youngest son Jon, doesn't have certain moments of resonance, but it remains stubbornly shallow in execution perhaps because this represents Jon Kasdan's directorial debut. Actual nuance is often replaced by moments of forced comedy and drama. Brody is an appealing actor and can be razor-sharp when given an appropriately sized role like his smarmy turn as a Hollywood studio assistant in 2006's Thank You for Smoking, but Kasdan makes him a mopey presence here with little latitude for revealing any emotional complexity.

He plays Carter Webb, a 26-year old LA-based writer who specializes in soft porn (a plot point that isn't explored too much). His heart is broken when his pretty Spanish actress-model girlfriend Sofia, accelerating quickly on the Hollywood fast lane, summarily dumps him in a coffee shop. In order to decompress and heal, Carter decides to stay with his ailing, comically senile grandmother Phyllis in Michigan for a while. She lives across the street from the Hardwickes, and he gets to know mother Sarah and her two daughters Lucy and Paige. Before you shout The Graduate, the film does not go this exploitative route but instead looks at how Sarah and Lucy are drawn to Carter because of their own dilemmas. Sarah is an idle housewife who finds out she has breast cancer and a cheating husband, while Lucy is a typical angst-driven teen who has trouble dealing with boys and her parents. Nothing too surprising happens, mainly long dialogue scenes between the principals, while minor characters fade away entirely.

As Lucy, Kristen Stewart looks like she may have the chops to become Scarlett Johansson's successor in alienated youth roles, though her constantly slouched posture and downward gaze gets wearing. Absent from the screen for at least three years, Meg Ryan is a welcome presence as Sarah, and it's nice to see she still has a career after her lengthy string of 1990's romantic comedies. Minus her trademark twinkle, she manages to bring depth to a tightly wound character defined by her sorrow, and yet Kasdan shifts away from her character's relationship with Carter just when it gets interesting. The main challenge in watching her as a forty-something suburban matron is how much she simply doesn't look like one. Makenzie Vega plays Paige with predictable precociousness, while others barely register, including Olympia Dukakis on automatic pilot as Phyllis, JoBeth Williams as Carter's useless mother Agnes and Elena Anaya looking very much like Audrey Tautou's baby sister as Sofia. Perhaps reflective of the film's poor box office reception, the DVD contains no extras.

I really liked this movie. I found I could really relate to the characters. I have a friend who went through the same situation Meg Ryan did. The look on Adam Brody's face as the girl he loves is breaking up with him will make your heart hurt. His grandmother added another dimension, she made you laugh sometimes & made you sad at other times. The movie put you through emotional ups & downs but didn't leave you feeling all sad and depressed at the end, it gave you hope. I loved it. I think Adam Brody is going to be an Oscar winner someday--sooner than later.

With all the hype I've heard about Jon Kasdan's directorial debut, "In the Land of Women", I expected something far more than a 'by-the-numbers' tale of love lost, and healing, with stereotyped characters and a predictable plot; but two performances are so remarkable that they lift the film far above ordinary...Olympia Dukakis, as lead Adam Brody's death-fixated grandmother, takes a one-note character and gives it a comic spin that makes it irresistible; and most especially Meg Ryan, as a wise, funny mom dealing with the discovery of breast cancer.

Ryan is at that awkward, transitional phase in her career, over 40, with her patent sweet, perky roles now going to Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson, a period when she must redefine herself to survive as an actress. With "In the Land of Women", she reveals a depth, an assurance, that is a joy to watch. Dealing with her older daughter's rebelliousness, and husband's infidelity, the discovery of a lump on her breast could easily been an excuse for 'over-the-top' histrionics, but she never loses her character's distinctiveness. In her awkward bonding with the younger Brody, yet motherly reaction to her daughter's attraction to him, while cancer treatment robs her hair and health, Ryan never hits a wrong note. This is an Oscar-worthy performance, that SHOULD have been recognized!

So forget the hype, and savor this film for it's true merits...and enjoy Meg Ryan's triumphal emergence as a character actress!

Well I really didn't know what to expect with this movie when I picked it off of the shelf at Blockbuster. But surprise...this movie was actually pretty good! It wasn't your typical chick flick romantic comedy. It was a refreshing and smartly funny story about a guy trying to escape but actually finds himself by moving in with his slightly crazy grandma who just happens to live across from a hot mom and daughter duo. Romance is insinuated in different scenes with both the mom and daughter, but that's not quite the point of the movie. Overall, I enjoyed the film and didn't want it to end!

With a title like "In the Land of Women," one might expect a grueling exercise in overdone immature comedy. Instead, Jonathan Kasdan delivers a heartfelt, poignant drama dissecting the values of life, love, and friendship, and the experiences that change the views held by its brilliant cast of interconnected characters.

After a disheartening breakup with his girlfriend, Carter (Adam Brody) attempts to distance himself from his troubles by traveling to suburban Michigan to visit his dying grandmother, Phyllis (Olympia Dukakis). Shortly after his arrival Carter meets Sarah Hardwicke (Meg Ryan), the neighborly mother who lives across the street, and he quickly becomes intrigued by her charming nature and unique outlook on life. When he meets Sarah's two daughters, Lucy (Kristen Stewart) and Paige (Makenzie Vega), and becomes a sort of confidant to all three girls, his own views on life and love begin to change as his relationship with each helps to mend the emotional tears in their family.

The characters are the true foundation of In the Land of Women, and finer performances are rarely seen. Carter is an instantly likeable persona thanks to Adam Brody and his polished portrayal of a character with realistic flaws and believable aspirations. He is a writer who dreams of utilizing his talent for a more worthwhile venture and finds love in the unlikeliest of situations. Meg Ryan embodies a far more complex character than we're used to seeing, and evokes everything from affection to pathos from her audience. Both Kristen Stewart and Makenzie Vega are talented beyond their years and offer astonishingly intense and mature performances. The likeably morose Phyllis provides much of the comedy relief and also forces Carter to rethink his notions of death and view life in a new light. The compellingly poignant interactions between each character infuse a level of believability into their unusual predicaments to create a connection with the audience almost as strong as the ones they have with each other.

Perhaps Land's only flaw is also one of its finest points of originality and creativity. The intelligent dialogue that permeates the script both draws its audience into its world of intriguing characters while simultaneously keeping the viewer slightly distanced from the realism displayed. Do people truly have such emotionally charged and heart-wrenchingly challenging conversations? Perhaps not, but one can always hope, and the complex characters created here masterfully reveal an idyllic example of such individuals. While the situations portrayed may seem overly complicated, every character involved handles themselves exactly as one would want to see and every increasingly difficult predicament and strained relationship is made believable through exceptional acting and inspired dialogue. No real stumbles or faltering exists in their interactions, but a very real hesitation and a touch of uncertainty in certain conversations adds to the overall attractiveness of each character as they cope with their trying relationships. Only once was an intensely interesting moment cut short (an emotional sequence in a diner when Paige demands the truth from her mother, and consequently the respect involved with comprehending its weight), forcing me to ponder why one such memorable scene wasn't concluded more satisfactorily when all others were.

Subtle humor permeates much of the film, persuading the tone to remain light. Idyllic conclusions find their way into somber and delicate situations resulting in a moving, feel-good movie where tears of joy will likely replace those of sorrow. Though over-sentimentality may intrude upon satisfying drama from time to time, excellent pacing, endearing characters superbly acted, and thought-provoking, poignant dialogue make this Land one worth visiting.

- Joel Massie

The latest of my wife's movies that I watched with her turned out to be a surprisingly good picture that kept me guessing all the way through.

Adam Brody plays a soft core porn writer who goes home to take care of his grandmother just after his girl dumps him. He find an Alzheimer ready Olympia Dukakis, a Meg Ryan dealing with multiple crises and her daughter who is having a series of crises of her own.

In a complete reversal from her (my wife's) last movie But I'm a Cheerleader the characters do not follow any of the pre-defined routes that one is conditioned to expect in this pictures. Every time I was ready for an event something totally different happens. The only character that was a bit cliched was the youngest daughter who had much too much wisdom and even so it isn't as overdone as one might expect.

None of the performances are spectacular but all of them are good. A lot of the credit goes to writer director Jon Kasdan who gives them material that provides enough drama to make a story and enough comedy to keep the picture flowing. So have no fear, if your wife asked you to sit down with this one you won't be bored.

Jon Kasdan (son of filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan) makes a most auspicious directorial debut with "In the Land of Women," an utterly charming and winning indie comedy/drama marked by interesting characters, complex relationships and delightful performances by a first-rate cast.

When his fashion-model/actress girlfriend dumps him without warning, a "soft-erotica" writer by the name of Carter Webb leaves his home in L.A. to spend time with his eccentric grandmother in suburban Michigan. A 26-year old who hasn`t been able to grab a hold of anything meaningful in his life thus far, Carter finds his world becoming even more complicated when he makes the acquaintance of a mother and daughter who live across the street from where he`s staying.

The beauty of Kasdan's screenplay is that we never know where the story is going to take us at any given moment. Moreover, the characters interact with one another in ways that are both believable and surprising, and no one is made out to be either a hero or a villain, a sinner or a saint. Carter is coping with the pain of a failed romantic relationship, while the two women contend with marital difficulties, suburban angst, adolescent rebellion and a life-threatening illness. Yet, for all the potential sturm und drang of the material, "In the Land of Women" maintains a light-hearted, lyrical tone throughout, thanks to witty dialogue and a full-hearted appreciation for the subtle little ironies and eccentricities of life.

The performances could not be improved upon. Adam Brody makes Carter into a sympathetically vulnerable figure who, at the same time, can display a surprising amount of strength and intestinal fortitude when the situation calls for it. Makenzie Vega is sweet and charming as the literal girl-next-door who is quick to criticize her mother even though she doesn't know the woman quite as well as she thinks she does. But it is Meg Ryan as Sarah Hardwicke, the full-time housewife and mother, who truly excels in her role, turning a potentially two-dimensional character into a multi-faceted woman of surprising depth and emotion. With admirable restraint and understatement, Ryan conveys all the unspoken thoughts and feelings of a woman who is aware of the compromises she has made in life but who is far more wise and complex about the ways of the world than either her daughter or her philandering husband are willing to give her credit for. Finally, Olympia Dukakis seems to be having the time of her life playing an attention-seeking, doddering old woman who may not be quite as out of it as she wants others to believe she is.

As director, Kasdan takes full advantage of the bucolic Michigan setting (though it is remarkably lush and green for October), as Carter and Sarah take long, leisurely strolls around the neighborhood, getting to know one another and establishing a lasting relationship.

Like them, the movie is not afraid to take its time laying out its storyline and revealing the hearts of its characters. The result is an offbeat and deeply satisfying film that bodes well for the future career of its neophyte director.