It's Complicated Really a Simple Rom-Com

Some critics see Nancy Meyers' latest as somewhat more reasoned and subtle than her usual fare. But It's Complicated is still a formulaic flick—with a scene-stealing turn by Alec Baldwin. A few takes:

• The flick " isn't nearly complicated enough, but at least Meyers has dropped something a bit more subtle than her usual anvil," writes Stephanie Zacharek for Salon. "This one is more like a mere tire iron, but at least we've got Baldwin: He's the pixie dust that chases away the ensuing headache."

• Claudia Puig isn't buying it. Meyers "shoots the principals doubling over in laughter in place of crafting witty dialogue," she writes in USA Today. "Escapism has its place at the movies, but something this slick is like a lavishly wrapped but empty Christmas present."
• Nothing special here, Scott Tobias writes for the Onion AV Club. It's "the sort of 'mature' character piece the French do regularly and better (and without the need for quotation marks around 'mature'), but the cast at least helps relieve some of the tidiness."
• It's Complicated is so uncomplicated that the central love triangle is tied up lickety-split, Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail writes, leaving "only the teensy task of filling the rest of the rom-com's gaping two hours." Thank goodness for Baldwin: "His take on Jake, an unapologetic old rogue as insouciant as his bladder, is the one shard of honesty in the picture."

(More It's Complicated movie reviews stories.)