Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)

LISE'S VIEW ...

'The Private Lives of Pippa Lee' was so disappointing.

This story of a young wife of a brilliant but retired elder husband starts out with possibility, a sweet love story of an older man and a devoted young wife, but deteriorates into a mish-mash of drug use, promiscuity, self-absorption, mental instability and bad, bad choices.

Pippa, portrayed by Robin Wright Penn, and her husband, successful Herb Lee, portrayed by unfailingly delightful Alan Arkin, have what seems to be a calm, idyllic life, eating with friends and spending quiet time together. Lee has, we find, married Pippa and rescued her from a dissolute, quite disgusting life which started with a crazed, drunken mother and ended with lots of drugs and sex. And we get to see it. Oh boy.

Pippa, we realize, is slipping into a mental morass, perhaps because of her morally and psychologically damaging teen years. She meets her friend, Dot's stand-offish and sort of rude son, about a decade her junior, and next thing we know, Pippa is slipping into more than a mental pit.

Without spoiling anything, just be forewarned, this is not a cheery movie or a love story, and Pippa is not at all the nice, sweet gal we meet in the opening hour of the movie.

Pippa is a disappointment. Her husband and friends are disappointing, and Keanu Reeves as the son of Pippa's friend gives the most forgettable, wooden performance of his career.

You may search for something redeemable about Pippa and this movie, but you will come up empty-handed. Just let Pippa's secret lives remain that. A secret.