If you are spending time “In the Land of Women,” it means you’re spending a lot of time with Adam Brody. Surprisingly, it’s not an entirely unpleasant experience — even though he’s playing only a slightly milder and more mature version of his smart-alecky, sad sack TV persona from the late, not-so-great “The O.C.”
Unfortunately, attending this slow-moving, character-driven comedy-drama also means you’re in the land of Meg Ryan. And that’s a shame.
Emerging director-writer Jonathan Kasdan, the younger of the filmmaking sons of papa/executive producer Lawrence Kasdan (“The Big Chill,” “Grand Canyon”), follows in the family footsteps to craft another heartfelt, personalized gabfest about relationships and the vicissitudes of modern life among the overeducated bourgeoisie.
For Jon Kasdan, his alterego is a twentysomething aspiring writer named Carter (Brody) who makes his living selling soft-core porn scripts. Carter gets dumped by his gorgeous famous-actress girlfriend Sophia (Elena Anaya).
That sets off a quarter-life crisis only abetted by his neurotic mother (JoBeth Williams). So our hero decides to leave L.A. for a visit with his dotty grandmother Phyllis (Olympia Dukakis) back in the Michigan suburbs. He soon becomes involved in a strange, mostly platonic sort of love triangle with the beautiful blonde neighbors across the street, including the 40-ish mother Sarah (Ryan) and her angst-filled teenage daughter Lucy (Kristen Stewart). Complicating matters, and as a much-needed source of dramatic conflict in this meandering if sincere piece, Sarah has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
This must be why the once-reigning Ryan agreed to take this supporting part, which gives her second billing in a feature film to the former jester of a cheesy adolescent television soap. There’s nothing an aging America’s sweetheart likes better than playing a character with a disease that allows her to suffer nobly and shave her head.
But it’s hard to believe that Ryan could succumb to any mortal deterioration. She looks so shot up with fillers and other face-freezing cosmetic chemistry that it has to be preserving her like the undead on formaldehyde. The mannered movie star was always cute but never credible as a character actress. Ryan stinks here.
But “In the Land of Women” is really a coming-of-age story for the Brody protagonist. In that context, this is an adequate first attempt by a raw young filmmaker to tell an original story about real people in real situations without flashy plotting, special effects or gimmicks. And that should be encouraged in the land of Hollywood.
‘In the Land of Women’
2/5 stars
Starring: Adam Brody, Meg Ryan, Kristen Stewart
Director: Jonathan Kasdan
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, thematic elements and language
