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Film review

In the land of pablum

The first film by Jon Kasdan (does that name ring a bell?) boils mature themes down to an adolescent soundtrack.

By Steve Persall
Published April 19, 2007

Don't be fooled by Jon Kasdan's screenplay credit for his directorial debut, In the Land of Women. His "script" is more of an iPod playlist than anything, with mopey pop songs filling in emotional gaps every few minutes, likely selling downloads long after the movie's forgotten.

It is a formula perfected by teen angst TV shows such as The O.C., and Kasdan's casting of the canceled show's heartthrob, Adam Brody, is no coincidence. If half his MySpace friends buy tickets, the movie may break even.

Brody plays Carter Webb, a soft-core porn screenwriter who is dumped by his French ingenue girlfriend in the first scene. Cue the first song expressing his depression.

Then Carter informs his mother he will move to Michigan to care for his ailing grandmother such a nice boy and Track 2 kicks in for the soul-healing trip.

We meet Lucy Hardwicke (Kristen Stewart) and her younger sister, Paige (Makenzie Vega), whose uber-precociousness is signaled by singing along with Foreigner's Hot Blooded. Lucy's wardrobe almost entirely consists of retro jeans and vintage concert T-shirts, suggesting she's deeper than classmates listening to OK Go.

Later, when Carter and Lucy become friends and he urges her to "don't stop believing" in herself, I expected to hear Journey singing the advice. Who knew '70s arena rock was so wise?

The rock motif disappears whenever old folks like Lucy's mother, Sarah (Meg Ryan), and Carter's grandma (Olympia Dukakis) enter the picture. Then it's time for meditative piano noodlings that won't make the soundtrack CD. Sarah has been diagnosed with breast cancer, allowing Ryan to let her blue eyes water. Grandma's dementia limits Dukakis to shuffling like a zombie movie extra.

Such mature themes as these and an extramarital affair are handled with text message shallowness because, OMG, we just want to know if Carter and Lucy will be BFF.

Carter shares kisses with both Lucy and Sarah. Even little Paige asks him to marry her. Sarah saw Carter kiss Lucy and gets mad because, I dunno, she's jealous or something. Lucy never learns that Carter kissed her mom (eeeeew!), who's enchanted by his ability to compose love letters (awwww!).

Kasdan stirs all these ingredients into a syrupy mess. Women love Carter because he's a listener; having him speak too much would be a turnoff. Ryan makes her best impression in years simply by acting her age and leaving the cutesy stuff to Stewart and Vega. In the Land of Women dances around interesting notions of age-blind romance and medical tragedy to mosh with adolescent self-importance.

I wasn't aware of who made this bland movie until the end credits, or how it got made until Kasdan's father, filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) was listed as executive producer. Who you know really does matter in Hollywood, but you'd better know more to make it work onscreen.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

Review

In the Land of Women

Grade: C-

Director: Jon Kasdan

Cast: Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Makenzie Vega

Screenplay: Jon Kasdan

Rating: PG-13; profanity, briefly sexual situations, mature themes

Running time: 98 min.

[Last modified April 18, 2007, 11:16:02]