That was an excellent one.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, you'll recognise the Neil Simon pretense of this movie. Though it has neither the fast pace nor the wicked writing of a Simon production, it's well done and entirely worth an evening's light viewing. The depiction of a main character in an agonising predicament, but whose basic decency wins out time and again over her broken heart, is rare in popular culture, and brilliantly performed by Marcia Gay Harden.

Just as her husband says he will be coming home late, Madelyn sees him with another woman in the coffee shop. Instead of confronting them, she meet the woman, and oddly, becomes her friend. Written and directed by Joan Carr Wiggin, whose works are all about relationships, marriages, engagements. Marcia Harden is Madelyn, whose husband Paul is cheating with the MUCH younger Lucy (Leonor Watling). They strike up a friendship, lots of talking, discussing, psycho-analyzing, kind of like a woody allen movie. But... Madelyn doesn't tell Lucy that she is "the wife", and already knows what they are up to. They agree to help each other. Some funny lines. Lots of cussing, so leave the young uns back home! It's mostly a fun roller coaster of an adventure. Misunderstandings, lies, the usual caper ingredients. It's not always sure what it wants to be; netflix has this under COMEDY, but it's really a drama. Some serious scenes with Madelyn's mother, who is not at all well. Madelyn is very real, and she is all around us, with her sense of humor, and weaknesses. Check it out! Not bad.

What you might expect from a movie about two women, one who is lovely, older, wiser, and not as firm, the other lovely, young and not very bright, except for when it comes to manipulation and adoration of the physical and the moment, would not be what you get in If I Were You . It's a movie that does not underestimate the buddy aspect of a romp, and it turns that inside out by using traditional methods, straight (wo)man, loose limbed physical comedy, and adds a dose of heartbreak not only in the realm of love, but in all relationships including friendship and parent child. It's an exceptional vehicle for Harden and one she readily deserves as she is overlooked and underused in so many ways.

I managed to score a seat to the sold out showing at the Palm Springs Film Festival last night, and the packed house ate this movie up. Marcia Gay Harden makes the argument for comedic performances becoming Oscar worthy. The clever situation that sets up the whole film starts immediately and the laughs come quickly, punctuated by moments of profound emotional connection. It's a movie about relationships, but it's also a movie about acting, at first metaphorically and then overtly. Written and directed by a woman, and starring many strong women, it shines with honesty and humor without coming off as a "chick flick". And Aiden Quinn's baritone voice will test the lower range of your theaters subwoofers. See this movie, and pray it gets a good distribution deal.