If I Were You

I don't know why I waited so long to get around to this film. I read the synopsis and saw the cover and was... so-so about it? I knew Marcia Gay Harden was in it and she's very good so I bookmarked it – thinking I should get around to it at some point.The premise may be farcical and sound tawdry on the face of it, but it WORKS. If you enjoy good acting, If you love theater, if you appreciate complex relationships between women in a film instead of obvious tropes, if you appreciate films that keep humor and warmth and the absurdity of being human in mind when dealing with grief and loss? You, like me, will enjoy this film.And the first scene that Aidan Quinn – who admittedly makes any scene significantly better the moment he appears – and Marcia Gay Harden are in together was so good and honest and had such perfect stillness and acting that never for a moment felt like acting that I flat out got chills.The film was good, like most films it had stronger and weaker moments. But really – it has some spot-on acting and a thread of the absurdity of life that I love and in the end? Well, when it ended I wanted it to keep going. I wanted more time with these characters. And that's a wonderful feeling to get from a film.

I hadn't expected, from the description and the few reviews I read, to like this movie nearly as much as I did. It in fact is a small gem. The humor--and there's a lot of it--was disarming, and it ranged from physical comedy to absurdity to outrageous wit. If you watch this movie and have a sense of humor, you'll laugh a lot. But it also has a serious side that includes the extreme sadness and awkwardness of grieving the loss of an elderly parent who has lived a long and good life. And there's a strong statement about sisterhood in the movie which should not go overlooked.Marcia Gay Harden did a wonderful job, and her casting as King Lear in a revisionist play within the movie allowed us to witness the broad range of her talent. Leonor Watling too was fabulous as the errant husband's girlfriend: Even if she was your declared enemy, you had to like her on some level. Everyone was terrific, in fact. I always adore seeing Aidan Quinn, whom I've followed for decades. He is a very fine actor. and yes, as other female reviewers have noted, he is still quite a hunk.All in all, it's a feel-good movie, and it certainly raised my spirits.

So I read the three (at this time) one star reviews before I wrote this just to see if I was off balance. No, I don't think I am. I didn't give this a 5 because I'm not "in crazy love" with it. I probably won't see it again any time soon. But, and maybe this is just me, I found the premise quite believable. I enjoyed seeing the affair from both sides at the same time. I liked the character played by Marcia Harden. I believed in her and could see how someone, a nice person, could fall into such a trap. I even came to like the mistress. The characters learned and grew and helped each other and found happiness. What more could you ask for. The naysayers seem particularly upset that she had sex with a total stranger. Now I was in my sexual prime during the sexual revolution between the introduction of birth control and the spread of HIV so maybe I have a slightly different take on this but I didn't find it disturbing or unbelievable at all. And I really loved the play at the end. Marcia's acting was terrific in both the movie and the play.

WOW! There was just so much to like. For someone that is in a difficult marriage and is also a lover, it is really a movie to watch. There are tears and laughter. Until you live someone else's life, even that of your spouse, it is hard to walk in their shoes. It was fascinating to see what the other side as it might be in real life. That you could actually be friends with the lover if you just knew the person. It is so easy to misunderstand what each person, spouse and lover, is going through. I am also a theatre person - so that part was really intriguing. A really wonderful story with so many twists and turns. Once life starts to turn upside down, there are so many choices. This movie left us to decide what the ending would be. Choose love.

Fantastic movie with twists that force you to look at life a little differently. Madeline's empathy overcomes shallow anger and as she clearly struggles through some of the most devastating things in a person's life, infidelity, seeing the mistress as a human being and not 100% evil, the loss of a parent, loss of boundaries in the workplace, she doesn't ignore them, (well, kind of with 2 bottles of scotch) but she grasps them and handles them without losing her mind. Her strength and her sense of self shines through.All done with a gentle touch of comedy, with doing what the mistress tells her to do, the play and the cast, the recurring ice cream, and the madly infatuated boss. Valerie Mahaffey threatened to steal the thunder with her restrained presence, she is simple perfect as the suspicious wife of the boss, and Aiden Quinn was a wonderful addition, but honestly, the story would have survived perfectly without his storyline.Well made movie, and something I would watch again.

I think the audience for this movie should be people who have lost their parent(s) AND gone through divorce/severe marriage hardships. Then you relate to the story, then you know life is not black and white.I started watching it because of a funny plot and needed smth light to watch. However, it is NOT a light movie if you are the target audience (the one I outlined above). Acting is wonderful and multi-layer complexity of the story makes it a thought provoking and deep piece.I don't know if I'd watch it again, as it is not a light movie, but I definitely enjoyed it immensely and loved the realistic ending to the story.#womenpower