THE PRIVATE LIVES OF PIPPA LEE
US, 2009, 93 minutes, Colour.
Robyn Wright Penn, Blake Lively, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Maria Bello, Shirley Knight, Winona Ryder, Julianne Moore, Monica Belucci, Mike Binder, Robyn Weigert, Tim Guinee.
Directed by Rebecca Miller.
Rebecca Miller has written and directed some small films, three short stories in Personal Histories and a drama starring her husband, Daniel Day Lewis, The Ballad of Jack and Rose. This film is, again, a small-scale story but it has a top cast beyond expectations.
This is the life of Pippa, born Pippa Sossokian. It is also a star vehicle for Robin Wright Penn as the adult Pippa. She gives a fine, dignified performance in the present. Blake Lively is her young adult self. This is a woman who grew up in a large family with a church minister father and a hysterical mother (Maria Bello) who was on prescription drugs, who idolised her daughter but whose addiction and possessiveness drove her daughter away.
The film opens with the adult Pippa, married for 25 years to her older husband (Alan Arkin), a respected publisher who has had three heart attacks and has been forced to retire. Pippa, a gracious hostess, is finding the isolated life in a retirement village hard to deal with and experiences some depression and strange sleepwalking behaviour. She has a lawyer son and a photographer daughter (in Iraq) who ignores her mother.
After Pippa had run away from home to live with an unconventional aunt and her partner, she mixes with the wrong crown, drugs and promiscuity, until she is rescued by the publisher.
Some final developments are unexpected as is a friendship with a neighbour's son, Chris (Keanu Reeves) (who wanted to be a Jesuit at 17 and now has a Jesus-image tatooed on his torso, which offers a bizarre Christ-figure/Jesus-figure in a sexual scene)
The cast builds up the film beyond its small stature. Winona Ryder plays a friend, Monica Bellucci is the publisher's former wife, Julianne Moore is the aunt's companion and Shirley Knight is the neighbour. Robin Wright Penn is immensely watchable and gives the film its power. Many older women will find it easy to identify with her.
1.Rebecca Miller, her films, writing, perspectives? Life, fear, relationships?
2.The retirement village, affluence, the house, facilities? Shopping centre? The contrast with the New York world?
3.The musical score, songs, themes for Pippa Lee’s life?
4.The voice-over story, in the present moving to the past, the cumulative effect of the present and the past, a hard past, Herb’s love for Pippa, the marriage, saving her life? Children? Illness and death?
5.Herb and Pippa, twenty-five years’ marriage, the party, Pippa cooking, the gracious hostess, her poise and charm, yet her wondering about herself?
6.Herb, the reputable publisher, saying he was not creative but had an eye for talent? The talk at the table, his tribute to his wife? Sandra and her poems and his offering to read them? The three heart attacks? The meal with the children, their love for him? His having to retire, blood pressure, the difficulties of settling down, Pippa and her care, making an office for him, his refusal to admit his ill health, at home, the scenes between Pippa and Herb, sleeping, not sleeping, the sleepwalking, his reassuring Pippa?
7.Pippa and her new life, Dot as a friendly neighbour, her talk about Chris and his broken marriage? Sam and Sandra and their friendship? Sam’s attention to Pippa in the past? Her not having enough to do, going to the pottery class, making remarks and being ousted? The cake? Surveillance? Watching herself, the dreams, the lion, Chris in her dreams? The bond when Chris drove her home from the supermarket? Picking up her car?
8.Her past life, her mother, the pain of birth, her mother doting on her afterwards, her hair, the daughter of a minister, the large family, the household, the meals, her mother and the photos, her dressing her daughter up, dancing? Her mother’s prescription pills? Refusal to admit addiction? Pippa taking the pills, trying to reason with her mother? The bond in desperation? Her decision to leave, the phone call, her parents’ visit, her decision never to go home again? Her mother’s death? Her mother’s character and influence on her daughter?
9.Pippa going to stay with her aunt, finding Kat, her lifestyle, the taking of the photos, the sexual overtones, Kat wanting them for her novel? Being ousted by her aunt?
10.College, boys, drugs, her life a mess? At the party on the beach? The meeting with Herb, his politeness, the invitation? The phone call, her being bashed? With Herb, her ability to talk, falling in love, the explanations, her security, the marriage? Meeting Gigi at the dinner, Gigi and her style, the divorce from Herb, shooting herself? The beach and the haunting?
11.Pippa’s marriage, the children, the son a lawyer, the daughter a photographer, caution about going to Iraq? Grace ignoring her mother?
12.The discovery of Sandra and Herb, her reaction, keeping calm? Sandra and her dithering, trying to slit her wrists? Pippa being practical? Her leaving with Chris? The encounter with Dot and Dot’s surprise? Disappointment?
13.The discovery, Herb’s reaction, his turn, going to hospital, brain-dead? Ben’s coming, the puzzle about Sandra? Grace and the reconciliation? Tenderness? Her concern for her mother, talking with her?
14.Chris in himself, his mother, his marriage, the background of his Catholicism, wanting to be a Jesuit? His working in the shelter, his marriage break-up? The tattoo of Jesus on his torso? The sexual scene – with Jesus on top of Pippa? Christopher and the symbolism of his name?
15.The issue of turning off the life support for Herb, Pippa’s speech?
16.The encounters with Chris, driving with him, waking? Ben and Grace and their reaction? The discussions about the ceremony? Her decision to drive away, the future?
17.The film as a portrait of an American woman, as a child, teenager, adult woman, older woman?
