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Meg Ryan is just one of the females that finds a sympathetic ear in Adam Brody in this mixed message of a movie
What You Don't Know About Women Is A Lot:
In the Land of Women
4-20-07 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive
By Richard Knight, Jr.
In the Land of Women
4-20-07 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive
By Richard Knight, Jr.
"What you don't know about women is a lot," Olympia Dukakis as Rose Castorini says to John Mahoney in Moonstruck. Dukakis won
an Oscar for playing Rose "who's dead? Castorini, her defining role. Unbelievably, some critics have likened her part in Jon Kasdan's
In the Land of Women to the fierce but loving, multi-faceted Rose. Please don't let John Patrick Shanley, writer of Moonstruck's
beautifully constructed script hear this. To mention his masterful words in the same breath as Kasdan's is to invite a great deal of
disappointment from film audiences. A Moonstruck sized performance from Dukakis this is not; neither is it a Moonstruck sized role --
or script for that matter.
Shanley's line "What you don't know about women is a lot" hits Kasdan's picture right on the head. Ironic, of course, given the
movie's title but such is the case. The picture is based on Kasdan's real life experience. Kasdan, a child of Hollywood, son of
writer-director Lawrence and Meg Kasdan (and brother of Jake whose next movie The TV Set appears next week) fled to Michigan to
see to his grandmother (or vice versa in real life, I'm not quite clear) and ended up spending time with a lot of ladies in the
neighborhood. In the movie version, the grandmother (Dukakis' thankless role) is suffering from what appears to be early
Alzheimer's and is a cranky hard case. But why not? She apparently hasn't seen her grandson Carter Webb (Adam Brody, the
thinking girl's heartthrob I guess) in years and he's not exactly Mr. Polite when he arrives on her doorstep unannounced for an
extended stay.
Then, instead of seeing to the elderly lady and perhaps cleaning up the slovenly, messy house, he goes for a run and smacks into a
tree while listening to yet another now now rock song on his iPod (the soundtrack's stuff with 'em -- close your eyes and your ears
might lead you to believe you're at a Disney teen comedy like Princess Diaries). Conveniently knocked out, he's seen to by the
comely but shy 15 year-old lassie from across the street. Soon, Carter has also struck up a friendship with the young lady's mom
who has just discovered she's suffering from breast cancer. Meg Ryan plays the role and brings a fair amount of depth to the part
(and eschews the usual kooky stuff) but to be honest, much of the time she was on screen I found myself staring intently at her
face and those...lips of hers (she really does look a bit like The Joker). "Why did this pretty, charming lady willfully disfigure herself
so drastically" I kept wondering every time she and Carter went out for another of their walks. The duo talk and talk but nothing
more than the usual Lifetime Television for Women stuff seems to be said though the scenery around them is lovely.
Eventually, the bond between Carter and Meg leads to a little lovey-dovey action, as does the bond between Carter and the daughter
(convenient for the marketing team -- see the poster above) and both those things lead to the film's big climax. There are also
comedic scenes, tragic scenes, scenes that seem to have come from a frat comedy, and much else thrown into this overbearing,
insufferably sanctimonious movie. One thing is clear, however -- Kasdan's reach has exceeded his grasp.
So where is Dukakis in all of this? She's in the background, an irritant for Carter who seems to have time for everyone but her. He
never seems to attend to her needs or bother to drive her to a movie or take HER for a damn walk or to the doctor's or the beach or
anywhere for that matter (they go to dinner when SHE insists). Carter doesn't seem to care much about her life, his grandfather, her
memories, her relationship with his mother, nothing, nada. Why did the guy go there in the first place? He learns nothing from her
and has no sense of urgency to do so even though she keeps insisting that she's dying.
This is apparently supposed to be a young man's attempt to experience first hand the mysterious country known as the land of
women (mysterious I think, only to heterosexual men -- can I get a witness my gay brethren?) but is instead a self-involved,
self-congratulatory confused mess. When Meg Ryan tells Brody after his usual kevetching that maybe he's not a very good listener
you think, "That's only the half of it!"
The other half is, again, thanks to Rose Castorini: "What you don't know about women is a lot." Amen to that.
an Oscar for playing Rose "who's dead? Castorini, her defining role. Unbelievably, some critics have likened her part in Jon Kasdan's
In the Land of Women to the fierce but loving, multi-faceted Rose. Please don't let John Patrick Shanley, writer of Moonstruck's
beautifully constructed script hear this. To mention his masterful words in the same breath as Kasdan's is to invite a great deal of
disappointment from film audiences. A Moonstruck sized performance from Dukakis this is not; neither is it a Moonstruck sized role --
or script for that matter.
Shanley's line "What you don't know about women is a lot" hits Kasdan's picture right on the head. Ironic, of course, given the
movie's title but such is the case. The picture is based on Kasdan's real life experience. Kasdan, a child of Hollywood, son of
writer-director Lawrence and Meg Kasdan (and brother of Jake whose next movie The TV Set appears next week) fled to Michigan to
see to his grandmother (or vice versa in real life, I'm not quite clear) and ended up spending time with a lot of ladies in the
neighborhood. In the movie version, the grandmother (Dukakis' thankless role) is suffering from what appears to be early
Alzheimer's and is a cranky hard case. But why not? She apparently hasn't seen her grandson Carter Webb (Adam Brody, the
thinking girl's heartthrob I guess) in years and he's not exactly Mr. Polite when he arrives on her doorstep unannounced for an
extended stay.
Then, instead of seeing to the elderly lady and perhaps cleaning up the slovenly, messy house, he goes for a run and smacks into a
tree while listening to yet another now now rock song on his iPod (the soundtrack's stuff with 'em -- close your eyes and your ears
might lead you to believe you're at a Disney teen comedy like Princess Diaries). Conveniently knocked out, he's seen to by the
comely but shy 15 year-old lassie from across the street. Soon, Carter has also struck up a friendship with the young lady's mom
who has just discovered she's suffering from breast cancer. Meg Ryan plays the role and brings a fair amount of depth to the part
(and eschews the usual kooky stuff) but to be honest, much of the time she was on screen I found myself staring intently at her
face and those...lips of hers (she really does look a bit like The Joker). "Why did this pretty, charming lady willfully disfigure herself
so drastically" I kept wondering every time she and Carter went out for another of their walks. The duo talk and talk but nothing
more than the usual Lifetime Television for Women stuff seems to be said though the scenery around them is lovely.
Eventually, the bond between Carter and Meg leads to a little lovey-dovey action, as does the bond between Carter and the daughter
(convenient for the marketing team -- see the poster above) and both those things lead to the film's big climax. There are also
comedic scenes, tragic scenes, scenes that seem to have come from a frat comedy, and much else thrown into this overbearing,
insufferably sanctimonious movie. One thing is clear, however -- Kasdan's reach has exceeded his grasp.
So where is Dukakis in all of this? She's in the background, an irritant for Carter who seems to have time for everyone but her. He
never seems to attend to her needs or bother to drive her to a movie or take HER for a damn walk or to the doctor's or the beach or
anywhere for that matter (they go to dinner when SHE insists). Carter doesn't seem to care much about her life, his grandfather, her
memories, her relationship with his mother, nothing, nada. Why did the guy go there in the first place? He learns nothing from her
and has no sense of urgency to do so even though she keeps insisting that she's dying.
This is apparently supposed to be a young man's attempt to experience first hand the mysterious country known as the land of
women (mysterious I think, only to heterosexual men -- can I get a witness my gay brethren?) but is instead a self-involved,
self-congratulatory confused mess. When Meg Ryan tells Brody after his usual kevetching that maybe he's not a very good listener
you think, "That's only the half of it!"
The other half is, again, thanks to Rose Castorini: "What you don't know about women is a lot." Amen to that.
