I Could Never be your Woman (starring Michelle Pfeiffer)

I was staying with relatives, to help celebrate my father’s 85th birthday. After a very enjoyable day, he suggested watching a DVD in the evening. I selected a few I hadn’t seen from the large collection, and he chose ‘I could never be your woman’ since it stars one of his favourite actresses, Michelle Pfeiffer.

As with so many films I’ve seen recently, the main character, Rosie (Pfeiffer) is in her early forties, and divorced. She’s the producer of a sitcom which is becoming rather tired… and then her boss insists that she must abandon any remotely controversial storylines.

Rosie decides to introduce a new character, and struggles at first to find anyone remotely suitable. But eventually she offers a contract to Adam, an actor in his late twenties. He lifts the show somewhat, and he and Rosie find a mutual attraction, although neither is entirely comfortable about the difference in their ages.

Rosie is very close to her thirteen-year-old daughter Izzie (Saoirse Ronan), who’s going through puberty and has fallen for a boy in her class. He doesn’t seem to want to know, however. Rosie offers her daughter some advice, and I thought their scenes together were some of the best in the film.

Much of the story involves production scenes for Rosie’s TV show, and a very unpleasant PA who tries to cause trouble wherever she can. There were rather too many caricatured characters for my tastes, and an all-too-predictable storyline, brought out of the ordinary not by Pfeiffer, although she was good in her role, but by the scenes involving the young teenagers.

Bizarrely, given that the film is mostly set in the real (if somewhat soap-style) world, there are also mystical scenes with a woman whom I thought was supposed to be a guardian angel, or possibly even a voice of conscience. According to IMDB she is intended to be Mother Nature. These scenes spell out the theme of the movie, something to do with moving on and letting the younger generation fall in love and take their place in the world.

The rating is 12A (PG-13) in the US, and that seems to be to be correct. There’s nothing too explicit (although a great deal is implied) and there’s only one violent scene, which isn’t particularly traumatic. It might be of interest to younger teenagers, particularly if they enjoy films about TV production, but it’s really intended for an older audience.

Pleasant enough viewing, but it’s not a film I’d necessarily want to see again.

Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews