xoxoxo e: in praise of older women

Friday, January 21, 2011

in praise of older women

Article first published as In Praise of Older Women on Blogcritics.

Amy Heckerling needs to make more movies. And they all need to feature Paul Rudd. Apatow's OK, but more Heckerling, Rudd.

Rudd's dance scene alone should sell this movie.

This movie went straight-to-DVD, which is usually considered a bad thing, but the way people watch movies these days—on cable, the internet or via Netflix and similar services is an ideal way to catch up with "little" films that wouldn't have been at the box-office anyway. I do find it strange, however, that studios are willing to wide-release a movie like this week's latest rom-com with Ashton Kutcher and is-she-already-overexposed Natalie Portman but passed on this one with Pfeiffer and Rudd.

The quick answer is that they think that because the female lead is of a "certain age" that no one will go see it. Any woman over twelve should love this movie, as would most men, I suspect. Saoirse Ronan is great as Pfeiffer's daughter and Jon Lovitz as her ex-husband. You can see how they might have gotten together once upon a time and totally get why they aren't together anymore.

I've had a crush on Rudd since Clueless and obviously so has Heckerling. She has a new movie in the works about vampires, Vamps, starring Alicia Silverstone, which should hopefully give all those mopey and boring teen vamps a much-needed kick in their glittery pants. Maybe she should do the rumored Buffy reboot. The director is faithful to her actors—Rudd, Stacey Dash, Silverstone, Wallace Shawn—she obviously likes who she works with and works with who she likes.

One of the best and shortest scenes in I Could Never Be Your Woman is Pfeiffer reacting to a couple of Hollywood types trashing and dismissing women:

The movie is filled with funny, well-written moments, such as Pfeiffer's character Rosie bantering with younger boyfriend Adam (Rudd):

Rosie: Remember when we had that talk about you being 29? I keep thinking about how... young that is.
Adam: Well, I'm planning on getting older.
Rosie: [laughs] Yeah, well I'm not planning on getting younger.
Adam: That's just being stubborn.

I tend to forget how funny Michelle Pfeiffer can be, because it's so easy to be blinded by her beauty, but she gets to be goofy and smart-talkin' in I Could Never Be Your Woman and it suits her.