Alas, it's not a lesbian porn film either...

I've probably mentioned this before, but I'm sort of a sucker for any movie with Meg Ryan.  Romantic comedy (Sleepless In Seattle, French Kiss), action war drama (Courage Under Fire), suspenseful thriller (The Presidio, In the Cut)--if she's in it, I'll watch it.  Even an ensemble chick flick like Hanging Up and it's threat of the ubiquitous girlie sing-a-long--yup, endured it, watched it, liked Meg Ryan in it.  You could almost say, I have a crush on her.  So, of course, I had to watch her last movie on DVD, In the Land of Women.  

Oddly, the movie studios marketed this movie with posters like that to the left, screaming Generation Y romance.  Watch Adam Brody, straight from that hipster show The O.C., and emerging young star Kristin Stewart make out, fall in love, have babies, etc.  In reality, that kiss lasted all of five seconds, and really had nothing to do with a romantic coupling in the making at all.  This is not bad, though.  Instead, the debut film of young director Jonathan Kasdan is something much less formulaic, telling the story of Carter Webb (Adam Brody), an aspiring writer and softcore porn scripter from LA who gets dumped by his pretty Hollywood starlet girlfriend, and subsequently volunteers to take care of his senile grandmother in Michigan as an excuse to nurse his broken heart and figure out what's going on his life.  While there, he meets the Hardwickes across the street, who are dealing with their own heartaches, as well.  Sarah (Meg Ryan) is wrestling with regrets as she struggles with a new diagnosis of breast cancer and the realization of her own mortality, while her daughter Lucy (Kristen Stewart) tries to understand her own anger towards her mother as she maneuvers through the challenges of her teenage years.  The end product is a touching without being too sweet story of relationships between Carter and the Hardwicke women that helps them all heal and move on.  

This is the sort of movie that seems to beg for formula pieces.  Forbidden love affair between Carter and Lucy.  Abrupt reentrance of old girlfriend at some inopportune moment after Carter finds true love.   The Hardwicke girls breaking out into song using wooden spatulas as faux microphones to sing in.  Emo hipster soundtrack.  Luckily, it has none of that, and doesn't rely on any of the typical crutches.  Perhaps to illustrate this point is a scene where Carter, who went to private school in LA, asks Lucy to tell him about the usual normal high school stuff he probably missed out on like football games, prom, "You know, all that John Hughes stuff."  Lucy's reply, "Who's John Hughes?"  

This isn't Oscar-winning type stuff, but it's a solid DVD rental, and a fulfilling way to spend an hour and a half some evening.  Meg Ryan gives a pretty strong performance that may tell us what kind of movie roles we'll see her in now that she's getting past that typical romantic comedy leading lady age.  Kristen Stewart is believable as a sweet, yet confused teenage girl.  And Adam Brody shows some promising charisma that will probably have him emerge as the lone successful thing to come out of The O.C. cast.  If this was a film I rated in the theater, I'd probably call it "Cheesy."  But for a DVD, I'm willing to say it's...