The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Rebecca Miller
Written by	Rebecca Miller
Produced by	Brad Pitt Lemore Syvan
Starring	Robin Wright Penn Blake Lively Keanu Reeves Monica Bellucci Julianne Moore Maria Bello Alan Arkin Winona Ryder
Cinematography	Declan Quinn
Edited by	Sabine Hoffmann
Distributed by	Icon Entertainment International (UK) Screen Media Films (US)
Release dates	June 10, 2009 (2009-06-10) (UK); November 27, 2009 (U.S.)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
Box office	$1,296,970[1]

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Rebecca Miller. The screenplay is based on her novel of the same title.

The film premiered on February 9, 2009, at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival and was shown at the Sydney Film Festival and the Edinburgh Film Festival before opening in the United Kingdom on July 10. Following a showing at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was limited released in the United States on November 27, 2009.^[2]

Plot

Pippa, an infant born with body hair, is rejected by her mother who shouts, "I have given birth to a monkey." However, the mother and daughter soon reconcile in a most relationship in Suky's obsessive behavior over Pippa's looks. When Pippa discovers that her mother's neurotic behavior is involved with an addiction to amphetamine pills, she tries to talks to her mother about how she feels about her addiction. Suky soon stops taking the pills for a week, until could handle any longer without her medication. When her mother is unable to break away from her prescription addiction, Pippa takes several pills herself after not being able to handle seeing Suky with her rapid mood changes. When confronted with her daughter's willingness to become a fellow addict, Suky agrees. Pippa explodes at her mother's agreement which results in her mother vituperative rage,"I have always hated you," and Pippa runs away from her rural home and to seek refuge with her father's sister Trish in New York City. She is startled to discover her aunt is a lesbian and retentive of her roommate Kat, a pretentious photographer who specializes in photographing lesbian sadomasochistic scenes. Falling under Kat's influence, Pippa rapidly descends into an two week participation in the scenes as Kat's model. One afternoon, her aunt returns home earlier than usual and feeling rather unwell, and discovers Pippa's participation in an erotic photo session, she banishes her from her apartment. Unaware of her place in the world, Pippa soon finds her way with several other like-minded bohemians, where she supports her pill-based, drug habit by as an exotic dancer.

As she finds comfort in her new life, she soon joins her friends at a beach house party given by a successful publisher's wife Gigi, Pippa meets Herb Lee, a charismatic publisher 30 years her senior. After beginning a brief friendship with Herb, she begins to feel "...protected..." and later says as their fondness for each other grows, proclaims, "...he makes me feel protected...". Herb is accepting of her past lifestyle and sees a "sweetness" that accompanies her experience. This is when Herb tells that he has finally decided to divorce his wife and marry Pippa.

Later, Pippa is given a new dress from Herb, wishing for her to wear it when they have a "final" lunch with his wife. Along with his writer friend as a another witness, Herb's wife Gigi, who appears up to this point to be civilized and agreeable to a divorce, pulls out a pistol, points it at her dinner guests and then places it in her mouth, fires and kills herself.

Pippa, consumed with guilt, marries Herb and in the ensuing twenty years they have two children, and live a very comfortable life until Herb's multiple heart attacks force them to sell their Manhattan apartment and settle in a retirement community in suburban Connecticut, where Pippa develops a sleep disorder. By far the youngest of all the residents, she finds herself becoming bored and restless and beginning to unravel until she meets her neighbor's rather distant son, Chris, many years younger than Pippa, begins a friendly relationship and contrast to Pippa's anxiety-free lifestyle. Pippa later discovers that her long known friend, Sandra Dulles, has been having an affair with Herb as her own relationship with Chris grows further. Following a brief talk about the terms of their divorce, Pippa finds Herb a victim to another one of his heart attacks the next day and is rushed to the hospital. Afterwards, she takes off with Chris to an empty baseball field where in his truck they begin to pray for Herb as soon their intimacy deepens when they engage in intercourse, where after, Pippa cries and Chris takes her back to the hospital. As Herb stays in life-support, Pippa takes her daughter home as her son stays with their father whom the doctors say that will no longer be showing any sign of brain activity. Pippa soon reconciles with her daughter as she sees Pippa smoking and asks just for her to be honest with who she really is. The following morning, Herb is removed from life-support and tells her children to take what they want from the apartment and anything else be donated to Goodwill. After briefly saying goodbye, she takes off into the sunset with Chris.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2009)

Production

The film was shot on location in Danbury, New Milford, and Stamford, Connecticut.

Cast

• Robin Wright Penn as Pippa Lee
• Keanu Reeves as Chris
• Alan Arkin as Herb Lee
• Julianne Moore as Kat
• Robin Weigert as Trish
• Maria Bello as Suky Sarkissian
• Tim Guinee as Des Sarkissian
• Blake Lively as Teenaged Pippa
• Monica Bellucci as Gigi Lee
• Zoe Kazan as Grace Lee
• Winona Ryder as Sandra Dulles

Critical response

The film is rated 67% 'Fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes based on 70 reviews.^[3] David Gritten of The Telegraph observed, "Buttressed by a formidable cast . . . Miller navigates her story between sharp satire, dark comedy and wrenching drama. Pippa feels like a character from films of an earlier vintage, including Diary of a Mad Housewife and The Graduate; however she is less of a rebel than "Housewife's" protagonist and more non-conformist than Mrs. Robinson. Hints and traces of a playful, late 1960s mood abound. Yet Miller's film is a triumph. Uniformly well acted, it boasts a psychologically knowing script, clearly written by a smart, assertive human being rather than a software programme."^[4]

Philip French of The Observer said, "The humour is forced, the shocking revelations too sudden and not altogether convincing, but it's enjoyable in an uninvolving way."^[5]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film two out of five stars, calling it a "hugely overegged pudding of a film," "indulgent," "complacent," and "a film that is very pleased with itself."^[6]

Trevor Johnston of Time Out London rated the film three out of five stars and commented, "No challenge to surmise where all this is heading, but there are pleasures to be had while it takes the scenic route. With the story structure working backwards and forwards at the same time, the lack of tension is no surprise, nor does Miller help herself by flitting through a variety of moods, from period satire, whimsical imagining and character comedy to more sinewy drama. On a scene-by-scene basis, though, it’s classily effective, mainly because of Wright Penn’s skill in nailing the precise tenor of every moment. She’s a great actress, and a subtle one, too. Anyone who can wrestle scenes away from a lovably grouchy Alan Arkin must be on top of their game."^[7]

Hannah Forbes Black from Channel 4 rated the film 2½ out of five stars, calling it a "soft-focus, chocolate-box fairytale." She continued, "The whole thing is vaguely reminiscent of post-war domestic dramas aimed at a daytime audience of housewives - like a photo-negative of Brief Encounter ... Miller's self-adapted script is no more strained and compromised than the average book-to-film adaptation, but one wishes that she'd seized this amazing opportunity to take liberties with her own work ... Toured rapidly around Pippa's life, we can see the outline of the traumas and choices that have shaped her personality, but the film doesn't seem to know what it wants to say about any of it."^[8]

Darren Amner of Eye For Film rated it three out of five stars and called the script "very wry, funny and emotionally charged."^[9]

Peter Brunette of The Hollywood Reporter called it "the kind of film that most critics desperately want to like" and added, "Unfortunately, writer-director Rebecca Miller's script tries so hard to be nervous and edgy that it ultimately succeeds only in making its viewers nervous and edgy. It's as though Miller threw a really loud party for all her Hollywood friends, but forgot to invite the audience ... The acting is top-notch (if consistently over-the-top) and the direction is perky (not to say frenzied), but the script is just immensely too much of a good thing. Virtually every character in the film, and virtually everything they say, is so self-consciously quirky that viewers quickly start wincing when they should be laughing or crying ... The film's basic structure is to alternate between Pippa's present-day life as a suburban Mom and her wild youth, but the transitions are often awkward and the polar opposite moods of each part tend to work against rather than reinforce each other. The ultimate intent of the film seems to be to make some honest points about seeking one's own happiness rather than living for the sake of others, but it also wants to be outrageous and outrageously funny at the same time, and the clash of tones is fatal."^[10]

Alissa Simon of Variety noted, "Cardboard characters and severe problems of tone fatally flaw the awkward satirical relationship drama [that] feels as schizophrenic as its eponymous heroine ... While the film marks a change of pace from the intense seriousness of Miller’s earlier work, she never finds the dark comic edge that would make Pippa more satisfying viewing. Indeed, she never sustains any tone at all. The dialogue teeters from flat comedy to wince-worthy whimsy, with detours through blithe and earnest. Visual style, too, is all over the place ... Period music does a better job of evoking the era than the laughable costumes, hair and makeup."^[11]

References

External links

• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee at IMDb