If I Were You

If I Were You (2012)

Be careful—the first twenty minutes of this movie is so bad (or bad seeming) with improbable dialog and kind of "stupid" characters (and maybe inept actors). Or so it all appears. Keep watching. This smooths out quickly, and you get used to the farcical style, so that by the end it all seems normal and pretty fun.

The idea is simple, and explained really well in the movie. Two women find they can't make good decisions for themselves, so they agree to make decisions for each other. Big stuff, like whether to date someone, or what to say to end a relationship. And so when a biggie comes up they have to call the other person for instructions.

This is tied together brilliantly by a simple first scene (which doesn't give much away, but skip this paragraph if you want the first five minutes of the movie untouched). One woman sees her husband cheating on her with the other (younger) woman. The older woman then sees the younger buy the stuff for a suicide, so follows her to save her. The younger woman thinks this is absolutely beautiful (which it is). And the friendship and the pact are formed.

But of course there is this secret lingering, and a husband who calls (and gets calls from) the two women for different reasons.

As you can imagine, the complications are hilarious.

The other theme that gets going is King Lear, the play, and how the two women get involved with that and why. It's a nice layer that actually doesn't get used very well until near the end when the older woman gives a eulogy quoting the Shakespeare she's been learning. The fellow actors are all terrible on purpose, but they are also thin and clumsy in the movie, especially the director who overacts to distraction.

By contrast, our two women play their roles to a kind of comic perfection. The older, played by Marcia Gay Harden, is actually the key protagonist, and is wonderful. Her younger friend, Leonor Watling, is terrific, too, and a perfect complement. Whatever the other outcomes of the movie, you end up hoping these rivals become good friends.

This is a real gem of a movie written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin, who did an outstanding job at both. The writing was witty, highly intelligent and crisp, without being snappy or predictable, but embodying mature depth and strength. This film is one of those unforgettable films that reach into the inner core of the heart - yet is handled unconventionally and with more savvy than one has come to expect in these genres.

Marcia Gay Harden is outstanding in this film. Outstanding, deep, multifaceted. It was a joy just to watch her. There is so much about this movie that felt rich - certainly not your average shallow Hollywood product.

I look forward to more films by Joan Carr-Wiggin.

I only recently discovered this little gem on Netflix and I was really impressed. This independent film is everything that so many Hollywood films aren't (anymore): complex, interesting, challenging, funny. The acting (especially Marcia Gay Harden and Aidan Quinn) is excellent. Despite its 2-hour run-time and complex plot, it never bogs down. Director Joan Carr-Wiggin does an admirable job of keeping the story moving and relatable through all the twists and turns of the plot and subplots. In fact, the story itself mirrors the Shakespearean structure with intrigue, mistaken or confused identities, poignant subtext, etc. And to top it all off, there's no formulaic development or "Hollywood ending" to ruin the great story! This film is truly delightful and its a shame that it did so unbelievably poorly at the box-office. The critics have not done it justice, either, giving one-line reviews that make me wonder if they even watched it. If you check on Rotten Tomatoes, you'll see that the audience score is around 70%, while the critic's score is at 9%! Definitely a disconnect with reality, in my opinion. It's not a perfect film, and if IMDb allowed it I would have given it an 8.5, but it's certainly MUCH better than its critical ratings and box-office earnings indicate.

If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you'll recognise the Neil Simon pretense of this movie. Though it has neither the fast pace nor the wicked writing of a Simon production, it's well done and entirely worth an evening's light viewing.

The depiction of a main character in an agonising predicament, but whose basic decency wins out time and again over her broken heart, is rare in popular culture, and brilliantly performed by Marcia Gay Harden.

Staid, even-keeled Madelyn gets the shock of her life when she discovers, quite by accident, that her husband of many years is cheating on her with a much younger woman. Then, through a series of complicated events, she winds up as the confidante and adviser to her husband's mistress who has no idea who Madelyn is. In fact, the two women both make a pact - Madelyn with full knowledge of what she's doing and Lucy wholly in the dark - that they will leave all their major life decisions up to the other person - an ostensibly more dispassionate and objective person - so as to avoid incurring any more self-inflicted mistakes in their lives.

Written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin, "If I Were You" plays much like a modern-day Feydeau farce, its humor based on a complex web of interconnected coincidences, misunderstandings and strategically withheld information. It's a clever, insightful little comedy that, by carrying its ironies and implausibilities to an almost absurd level, manages to make us face - and, even more amazingly, laugh at - just how real and cutting the pain caused by infidelity, romantic relationships and even platonic friendships can be. But the movie also deals with such heady themes as deceit, betrayal, hypocrisy, self-worth and a woman's place in the world, all without breaking a sweat. In fact, this becomes a growth experience for Madelyn who soon learns that she has a purpose and identity of her own apart from wife to a cheating husband.

It's true that the movie sometimes feels like it's a beat or two off in its more broadly comic moments (especially early on the film) and the ending rates as a bit of a cheat and copout, but those weaknesses are easily overlooked amidst fine performances by Marcia Gay Harden, Leonor Watling, Joseph Kell and Aidan Quinn and an overall wisdom about how life works.