The Private Lives of Pippa Lee Movie Review

Director / Writer Rebecca Millers transitions the adaptation of her own novel to the big screen which focuses on the struggles of a middle-aged married woman to discover her identity amidst a chaotic past and a lacklustre future. “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” has two main points: her collapsing current life from a dying marriage and the blossoming unlikely friendship with a younger guy.

Devoted homemaker and polished trophy wife 50-year-old Pippa (Robin Wright Penn) is married to publishing legend Herb (Alan Arkin) 30 years her senior. The series of events begin as the couple decides to move from their New York City home to live in the suburbs of Connecticut. The drastic life change triggers an identity crisis as Pippa flashes back into her distorted past.

Living with a manipulative pill-dependent mother Suky (Maria Bello) was too much to handle for the teenage Pippa (Blake Lively) who decides to move out to live with her Aunt Trish (Robin Weigert) in Greenwich Village. As she spirals into a world of modelling from her aunt’s lesbian lover Kat (Julianne Moore), a succession of boyfriends, and a rebellious life, she chances an encounter with the then-married Herb in his beach house in Long Island. Herb was attracted to her youth, beauty, and fresh mind. After hooking up and getting married, they were gifted with two children: son Ben (Ryan McDonald) and combat photojournalist daughter Grace (Zoe Kazan).

However, as she ages and moves to the countryside, her life becomes boring and her marriage on the brink of crumbling. With the help of a kitchen video, she discovers she sleep walks and devours the contents of the fridge. Her saving grace was in the form of neighbour Chris (Keanu Reeves) who suffers the same messed up life like her.

“The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” proves to audience that writer-director Miller’s success with 2005’s “The Ballad of Jack & Rose” was no fluke but a depiction of his production prowess.

What makes the film stand out the most is Robin Wright Penn’s superb performance driving audience to sympathize with Pippa’s life story. She embraces the character telling her tale effectively as we watch Pippa blossom and transition into a happier woman from the devastated wife she used to be.

I also love how Blake Lively was cast as the younger Pippa for her resemblance to Wright Penn allows the transformation of Pippa in the different stages of her life smoothly.

Though the plot is no doubt serious and tackling real life events, it’s nice that Miller intertwines dark humour and nice offbeat moments such as the sleepwalking scenes.