The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) DVD

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee could easily be summed as a menopausal chick flick as it deals with death, children, aging and families through the eyes of Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) and the several stages of her life. After moving into a retirement community with her publisher husband (Alan Arkin) who’s 30 years her senior, things start to unravel as she questions her seemingly perfect life and looks back on her younger self (played by Gossip Girl Blake Lively).

The one gripe that always haunts film adaptations of books is that they never stay true to the original material but that was never going to happen with this considering that director Rebecca (daughter of Arthur) Miller adapted it from her own novel. From the outset, Lee is so restrained and wound up waiting for the inevitable break is what grabs and holds on to the attention. That is down to Wright who perfectly portrays a woman who becomes the person she thinks other people want her to be and has her muddled past is revealed (pill popping mother, model in  sadomasochistic pictures, drugs, sex and general debauchery) is only makes her change from wild child to Martha Stewart only more intriguing.

As well as Wright Penn, Lively and Arkin, Miller has assembled a great cast including Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Monica Bellucci and Julianne Moore who all add something to the final product but it’s really Wright that’s keeps the interest in this slight portrait.

Limara Salt