It's Complicated

I've been rereading Brian Boyd's flat-out brilliant book on Pale Fire and planning a longish post on that, but haven't really been able to muster the slacker energy required to follow through.

Instead, let me just take this chance to mention that no one who values their time/sanity should see It's Complicated. I was warned off the movie, but didn't heed the advice. On some level, I think I thought "Hey, you put Jim Halpert and Alec Baldwin onscreen together and something funny is bound to happen."

The movie is off-the-charts bad. And I have a long, and distinguished history of being able to sit through, and even find some joy in, very bad films. So please please please believe me when I say this was just horrible.

To its credit, though, I found myself feeling so sorry for Alec Baldwin for having to be there at all. Up until about 30 minutes into It's Complicated I had always tacitly assumed that "sympathy for Alec Baldwin" was a feeling the chemistry set in my brain, no matter how hard it tried, would never be able to conjure up.