The reason Twilight was such a big box office hit -- and its sequel, New Moon, was even bigger -- is that the female audience finally decided to flex some of that powerhouse moviegoing muscle that had been in danger of atrophying since the phenomenon that was Titanic. Still, I don't expect that this often-unappreciated demographic is done with 2009 yet. While it'd be crazy to expect the Meryl Streep comedy It's Complicated to post anywhere near New Moon numbers, I'm starting to get the feeling women are about to make it a much bigger hit that some have foreseen. The rationale is simple: this movie is basically Twilight for older women! Here are four reasons why:
Team Edward is Team Alec
At the heart of both New Moon and It's Complicated is a love triangle, and the Nancy Meyers comedy neatly mirrors the central Twilight conflict. Both heroines are entangled with both a dangerous bad boy (whose breakup won't stick) and a nice, patient, alternative love interest who nevertheless gets constantly strung along by our main character. As you might have guessed from the trailer, then, It's Complicated puts Alec Baldwin firmly on Team Edward. Much as Twilight's Bella was drawn to the sexy, secretive Edward -- even though she knows he's bad for her -- so, too, does Meryl Streep find her unexpectedly swept up in a tumultuous affair with her ex-husband Alec Baldwin, who's keeping their assignations secret from their children and his current wife.
Team Jacob is Team Steve
Naturally, that makes Steve Martin our Taylor Lautner stand-in, and while his abs may not be up to par, his character serves the same purpose. Bella initially has no romantic interest in Lautner's Jacob, and it's only over time that she grows to appreciate him -- even if she still dicks him around a little bit because she's stuck on ex-flame Edward. He and Martin could start a club for pining puppy dogs; in It's Complicated, Streep hires Martin's architect to add on to her already sizable Santa Barbara manse (you know this is a Nancy Meyers movie when Meryl Streep decides to make one of the new rooms her "dream kitchen," even though the one she already spends a third of the movie in is a gorgeous space the size of a football field), yet takes him so for granted that she continually forgets that she's scheduled meetings with him. He's clearly the stable romantic choice that would make Streep's life easier, but some women can't resist the allure of a bad boy.
The Objectification of Men
New Moon may have been directed by a man, but the onscreen Twilight saga was created by two women (Stephenie Meyer on the page, and Catherine Hardwicke on the screen), and it's intriguing that the romance they devised may be one of the few to swathe its lead female in layers of flannel and a parka. It's the men in Twilight who are objectified, from Robert Pattinson's gratuitous, glittery shirtless shots, to the Native American Chippendales revue that is most of New Moon.
So, too, does It's Complicated keep its heroine not just clothed but overclothed -- even after having sex with Baldwin, Streep (holding those bedcovers as high up on her body as possible) makes him turn around before she'll get out of bed to don a bathrobe. Baldwin, by contrast, is as barechested as he's been since his matinee idol days. Even the throwaway sight gags objectify men: one morning, as Streep's family enters the kitchen for breakfast, her daughters are all clad in oversized pajamas while son-in-law John Krasinski swans in wearing a comically tight baby doll tee that he apparently borrowed from his wife (though only this film's putative villain -- Baldwin's hot younger wife -- would dare to wear such a body-hugging item).
The Constant Praise of the Heroine
There may be some differences between Twilight and It's Complicated (the former actually includes non-whites in its cast, for example), but one constant in each story is how much the other characters live to praise the heroine. In any other school, a shy mumblepuss like Bella would be ostracized, but Twilight posits her as the immediate coolest kid in school, the one boys flip for and other girls can't stop complimenting. Streep gets the same stream of admiration from the kids who practically worship her, the coterie of friends who tell her how amazing she is, the underlings at Streep's workplace who beam as she walks past them, and the two suitors who pine for her attention. In Baldwin's eyes, every move she makes is right-on, every meal she cooks is divine, and every decision she's made to give up on bikini waxes is note-perfect. Want to corner that female audience? Give your heroine two beaus and two hours of blandishments and watch the cash come rolling in.