Film Reviews

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

• Rating:
• Director: Rebecca Miller
• Starring: Alan Arkin
• Details: US / 93mins (16).

"The problem is you're too adaptable - you're the adaptable enigma," the serene Pippa Lee (Wright Penn) is told at a dinner party. Pippa, however, has had enough of being the enigma and wants to be 'known'; something rotten is boiling under her façade of tranquillity and it's about to boil over. To understand Pippa is to understand her youth: Because of a fractious relationship with her manic-depressive mother (Maria Bello) the teenage Pippa (played by Blake Lively) ran away from home, throwing herself into a bohemian rock 'n roll lifestyle. That all ended once she met Herb (Arkin), a publisher some years her senior, who gave her the security she didn#t know she craved. That was then.
This is now. She doesn't crave security anymore, but she doesn't know it yet: her growing ennui manifests itself in sleepwalks to the fridge to gorge on chocolate cake. Herb, now retired and regretting it, thinks it's the onset of his senility. When purposely-installed security cameras reveal the true culprit, it awakens questions in Pippa - what is wrong with her? What does she want? When Chris (Reeves), the wayward and troubled son of her neighbour, arrives home, it ignites the long-dormant lust for danger in Pippa and her life once again takes another path.
A busier film that Miller's previous low-key effort, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee still lacks a strong narrative thrust, but its ramshackle cabal of well-written characters that inhabit Pippa's life are interesting enough to keep the plotless narrative ticking over. Wright Penn hasn't inhabited a character this well since her turn in She's So Lovely – it's such a shame she doesn't star in more films. Adding to the impressive cast is an underused Julianne Moore, playing Pippa's aunt's lesbian lover, and a fun Winona Ryder as Pippa's friend caught in a loveless marriage. Even Reeves is fine. The two standouts are Bello and Lively, though. Their believable sparring matches ignite the quiet proceedings, giving the film a much-needed energy.
With plot developments and character reveals coming at unexpected times, and the overzealous use of flashbacks (Pippa's past is revealed piecemeal) ...Pippa Lee never finds its rhythm. Like Pippa herself, the film doesn't know what it wants to say or do and feels like a giant back-story to a movie that's about to happen. Maybe this is what Miller is trying to say: it's never too late and you're never too old to start over, start afresh. However, there's probably more going on here than just that.

Review by Gavin Burke