DVD Review: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Posted Mar 3, 2010 by Kevin Walker

Updated Mar 3, 2010 at 05:49 PM

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Stars: Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder, Maria Bello, Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci
Director: Rebecca Miller (“The Ballad of Jack and Rose”)
The plot: Pippa Lee (Wright) is 50 and a devoted wife and mother. When her much-older husband, Herb (Arkin), suffers three heart attacks, he moves them to a retirement community. Pippa begins to remember her wild past, which included an abusive mother (Bello), her aunt’s lesbian lover (Moore) and Herb’s unstable first wife (Bellucci). In the present, she meets an alienated-but-attractive convenience store clerk (Reeves).
Bottom line: A quiet, intelligent film that explores a woman’s midlife crisis. Wright is fantastic and everyone else is solid (especially Reeves). The movie explores guilt in a different way, and its take on marriage, parenting and how our lives go through phases is interesting.
Extras: Short, not very interesting interviews with Wright, Arkin and Blake Lively (who plays the young Pippa).
Quote: “But Herb, you are an old man.”
98 minutes (R; sexual content, brief nudity, some drug material and language)