Review of IN THE LAND OF WOMEN

July 19, 2007

Every year on our wedding anniversary, my wife and I watch a romantic love story type movie. (Must be the only love story movie I watch all year??? hehehe) Three years ago, it was "If Only", which I liked. Two years ago, it was "The Notebook", which I did not like. And last year, it was "The Lake House", which was OK. Unfortunately, this year, there was no big romance movie to break the stronghold of the action-packed summer blockbusters. So we settled on this obscure film which I have never even heard of.

The only name I recognize above the title was Meg Ryan. But we watched it anyway, better this, than "Terror Planet" or "White Noise 2". Aside from the lone person somewhere up the balcony, we had the entire moviehouse all to ourselves! It turns out however, that, despite the poster, this movie was not exactly the love story we expected.

*********************

"In the Land of Women" is the story of three people. There was Carter, a 26 year old soft porn script writer from LA, who was just dumped by his supermodel girlfriend (no explanation on how their paths even crossed). To recover from this crushing setback, he volunteers to fly to suburban Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother (played by Olympia Dukakis, the only other familiar face).

There he meets the women who live across the street, desperate housewife Sarah (Meg Ryan) and her teenage daughter, Lucy (Kristen Stewart). And there intersect their lives. And intersect they did! Every main character had three people fighting over their love. This movie is really hard to describe, but it is definitely about all their intersecting relationships. It is just a straightforward telling of the events that happened in their lives and the emotions that came out these events.

Meg Ryan is her old reliable and lovable self. Sure she is more mature now, playing a teenager's mom. But you really cannot help but love this woman. I liked her since I saw her first in "Joe Vs. The Volcano"! She is very good and sincere in her dramatic scenes. I liked the conversations she had with Carter in their long walks. I don't blame Carter at all, it is impossible not to like her.

The younger leads Adam Brody and Kristen Stewart, though both unknown to me, are also very good. Kristen had a rebellious teenager look, ala Avril Lavigne, not the typical teen beauty. Adam Brody had good scenes with the senior actors Meg and Olympia. May have a promising career ahead, although no male star from these prolific TV teen dramas really make it big in the movies.

Not really a film I would watch. But since I have, it is not that bad. Sincere and sad, yet with the promise of redemption.