701Panduan

Editor's Review

With a cast as strong and stellar as The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, we expect a movie of extraordinary dramatic proportions and this film does not disappoint.

To those who know her, Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) has it all. She has grace, wisdom, poise, and is the epitome of calm and is steadfastly loyal to her husband Herb (Alan Arkin) and her children.

But when the family moves to a Connecticut retirement community for Herb's sake, cracks begin to show in Pippa's exterior and she has to return to her past to find redemption for her future.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee delves into the life of one woman while reminding us how often we overlook the stories people have to tell, and base our opinion of them on just what we see in the present.

This movie begs us to find out more about people and maybe these things would surprise us. We begin to empathise with Pippa and we almost find her actions at the end justifiable, rather than infuriating.

It helps that the cast of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is able to transform this into a believable tale although casting Julianne Moore as a young lesbian erotic photographer and author may have been pushing the envelope. All other elements considered, this cast has been carefully put together.

Penn is perfect for this role and it is uncertain whether they selected her to play Pippa Lee because she of her role as Jenny in Forrest Gump. Somehow the kind of drug-filled past Pippa's mother went through was certainly reminiscent of Jenny's rough life.

Blake Lively does a fantastic job as the young Pippa Lee and it is almost like a maddening extension of her character in Gossip Girl, the wild but honest Serena van der Woodsen.

Let us not forget Keanu Reeves, heartthrob of many; it makes perfect sense to cast him as the man who suddenly appears in Pippa's life at a time when her loyalty to her husband is at its most vulnerable.

More often than not, movies these days are driven by plot or story development but rarely by character development - and that is the strength of this movie. It truly is for those who like to analyse and study people; even Pippa does it herself here.

There are so many aspects to consider when you watch this film, and it's hard to summarise in one review. It's a movie that will make you ask questions of how you regard people, and indeed give you cause to look at them in a new light. It should not be missed.

Source:The Star