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Exes Jane (Meryl Streep) and Jake (Alec Baldwin) getting close again in new comedy “It's Complicated.” Photo Credit: Melinda Sue Gordon Copyright: © 2009 Universal Studios.

Hollywood studios traditionally save some major movies for Christmas time, usually crowd-pleasers that might attract families eager for vacation entertainment. This month’s column looks at three such potential crowd-pleasers of three very distinct genres: an action fantasy, a romantic comedy and a musical.

Avatar
Much hyped – certainly overhyped – is James Cameron’s “Avatar,” a mastadonic sci-fi/action flick/fantasy which supposedly launches filmmaking into a new dimension (it opened Dec. 18). Made almost entirely in state-of-the-art CGI effects and shot in crystal clean 3-D, this whole elaborate enterprise ends up recounting a rather basic, and derivative, story. It’s one of vulgar earthlings of the future voyaging to another planet to search for a precious substance, and in the search, to eliminate, if necessary, a benign alien race living in harmony with nature.

The one distinctive angle to the narrative is that the humans have developed a technology (something to do with DNA) to literally change themselves into versions of the aliens – to become their avatars. A few of the human avatars come to identify with the aliens, called the Na’vi, and eventually stand with them in a final fight for survival.

Let’s face it, the plot is a hoary mix of funky fairy tale, “Star Wars” rip-offs, “Transformer” redoes, shrill war flicks, even politically correct cowboys-and-Indians movies. And it goes on far too long – over 160 minutes. It’s rated PG-13, which is right on, because its appeal will be principally to 14-year-olds (and their avatars) who will find many of the strained-for effects “neat” or “cool.” Yes, some of them definitely are cool, especially, for this writer, the sequences on the alien planet (called Pandora) which involve the Na’vi swirling around their super-lush world on gigantic pterodactyl-type birds. Maybe, also, the Na’vi’s magical Tree of Life, which glimmers and glows under a 3-D canopy that you want to reach out and touch.

But some kind of breakthrough? Maybe in budget terms, but not in story terms, though Cameron himself insists that “Avatar,” to be successful, must stand on its story above all else. This is not a movie to believe in, but one in which to be washed away – if you must – in your favorite luxuriant (preferably blue-tinged) imagery.

It’s Complicated
Completely removed from the noisy, wooly world of “Avatar” is the Nancy Meyer comedy “It’s Complicated,” a thoroughly enjoyable romp with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as a long-divorced couple, who, against all odds, have a fling together, throwing their lives into a tizzy. The affair between Jane (Streep) and Jake (Baldwin) is further complicated because the latter has remarried trophy wife Agness (Lake Bell) with a pesky young son. Steve Martin, as Adam, an architect working on Jane’s house, and the couple’s three children and potential son-in-law Harley (John Krasinski) leaven the mix nicely (opened on Christmas Day).

Meyer (“The Holiday,” Something’s Gotta Give”) also wrote the witty screenplay, which offers some wry setups, such as Jane and Jake’s drunken reconnection, and Jane and Adam’s encounter with some potent weed. None is more hilarious than a climatic scene involving Jane, Adam and Jake on two communicating lap-tops. I doubt there has been any other Skype exchange as randy – and funny.

The film is hardly flawless. Any number of stereotyped elements is present from other comedies set in La-la Land. Taking place in sun-lit Santa Barbara, the film’s décor and housing is pure Architectural Digest; Jane’s restaurant/bakery is more movie set than believable eatery. Then there is the lonely divorcé (Streep) who must have girl talk with three of her best, witty friends, all ready to talk openly of their sex lives. Missing, I must admit, is the standard African-American confidante for the leads…

The joy in “It’s Complicated” is in watching old pros of a certain age go through their paces. Streep as the befuddled Jane is at her comedic best, as just a contemporary woman who has, yes, adjusted to her divorced state, only to have her comfortable rug pulled out from under. Her infectious laughter punctuates the film, half of it expressed in delight and half of it coming from embarrassment. She handles both splendidly.

Baldwin, as kind of a roué light, cheats with abandon yet charm, evidencing that while he is out for his own (sexual) pleasure, he still truly feels for his lovely ex. As he does so well on TV’s “30 Rock,” Baldwin turns on a dime from smooth operator to harassed victim and pulls it off. Steve Martin’s characterization here is the more modest of the three, but his more measured, tentative Adam plays nicely against his more vivid co-stars.

Let’s say all three engage in a delightful exercise of foreplay, interplay and afterplay.

Nine
The new musical of the holiday season, “Nine,” is, for me, a bit of a bust, like recent Hollywood efforts such as “Sweeney Todd,” “The Producers,” “Dreamgirls” and “Rent,” whose movie versions have hardly replicated their theatrical successes. The film is based on a 1982 Broadway show based on Federico Fellini’s movie “8½,” and it traces the agonies and doubts of an Italian film director, Guido Contini (Daniel Day Lewis), struggling to fashion his latest opus, and his interactions with the varied women in his life (opened Christmas Day).

The Fellini film is an absolute classic, one that may incite emulation but which is probably (in my view) also unique, not subject to duplication. Still, the Felliniesque tinges of “Nine” are, to this film fan, the best parts of the movie, even though they pale in comparison to the original. As a production, it has some pizzazz and style, but, as a musical, it simply droops.

The numbers, as staged by director Rob Marshall (who also made “Chicago”) are unoriginal and often crass (like the coarse, stereotypical “Be Italian” belted out by Fergie). The choreography is facile and routine. Movement in the film is best defined by the ill-used Penelope Cruz (playing the Great Man’s mistress) who, in her big number, “A Call from the Vatican,” mainly strikes poses in lingerie rather than dances. All of the female stars – there are seven – get a number (Marion Cotillard, playing Guido’s long-suffering wife, gets two) but none of the songs are memorable.

Maybe if you like brash musicals, “Nine” will suffice; but the more you admire the original “8½,” the less “Nine” delivers.

Capitol Hill Film Festival
Video screenings of landmark motion pictures featuring Washington, DC, and Capitol Hill will begin in January at the Southeast Library and continue over the next several months. The first show, at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, is the classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” – directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur and Claude Rains – a political fable of the Little Man taking on the political bosses and winning by dint of persistence and pluck. Released in 1939, “Mr. Smith” was hugely popular and critically lauded, earning 11 Oscar nominations. It was the first major Hollywood film to use the US Congress as its principal setting.