Love and Other Impossible Pursuits: The Natalie Portman Movie We Aren’t Excited About

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits: The Natalie Portman Movie We Aren’t Excited About

I’m looking forward to see Natalie in Thor and maybe even in No Strings Attached but I can’t say the same about Love and Other Impossible Pursuits.

Why?

Well, let’s walk through the storyline:

Emilia Greenleaf is in for a rough ride when she meets and falls in love with her older colleague Jack (Scott Cohen). Jack is married with a kid (Charlie Tahan). When he gets divorced from Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow) and marries Emilia, Carolyne finds it difficult to get along with her stepson. Things get even more difficult for her when she gets pregnant and then loses the baby. It is not like Carolyne will be helpful at all. Can Emilia find a way to get over her loss and connect with Jack’s son?

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I’m sure the acting is lovely. But the story? I find it extremely hard to sympathize with Jack. He says he hasn’t done “this” before – this being he never cheated on his wife before. Congratulations, Jack. Let’s get you a medal. So he leaves his wife for the younger model. It can be true love, but since Jack didn’t  bother to walk away from his marriage before, I am not going to respect or tolerate him.

So Emilia falls in love with Jack. I am sure if she paid attention, there would be a lot of decent single or divorced man around. But no, Jack is “the one”.

I feel bad that she loses her own baby but it is a big stretch that anyone expects Carolyne to be nice to Emilia. Sure, maybe if enough time passed, she could be distant and polite. But come on…who wants to be nice to the other woman?

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So, yeah Natalie Portman’s character is in for a tough ride, but she signed up for it willingly, apart from of course the loss of her baby. But her grief and attempts to connect with the kid aren’t enough elements to lure me in. Her acting may be good but come on…this is Portman. When is her acting ever bad?

And as a Lisa Kudrow fan, I might just stick to Friends re-runs. Or watch P.S. I love you again. After all man who stayed in love with his wife for 9 years and helped her cope with his own death makes for a better story, at least in my book.

Based on the novel of Ayelet Waldman and written and directed by Don Roos.

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