Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

With an impressive talent pool of female performers like veterans Meg Ryan, JoBeth Williams and Olympia Dukakis and a younger talented performer like Kristen Stewart, this is the land of women anyone can warm up to. Sadly, "In the Land of Women" director/writer Jon Kasdan's honest approach about a struggling writer who departs Los Angeles to tend to his ailing grandmother in Michigan, fails to give his cast, led by the underrated Adam Brody from "The O.C." a chance fully envelop their acting chops.The movie commences as soft-core porn movie writer Carter Webb (Brody) is in the process of getting dumped by his model/girlfriend Sofia (Elena Anaya). Carter is a harried writer parts ways to suburban Michigan to spend time with his grandmother (Dukakis in role that doesn't have much to challenge her) while it gives the much needed time to work on that novel, he so wishes to finish. Fortuitously, across the street from his grandmother's house live the Hardwicke family who are the need for some well-needed healing for an aspiring writer like himself. We have the mother Sarah (Meg Ryan who got lost in the shuffle since 1997) is suffering from breast cancer. She is joined by her disconnected daughter, Lucy (Stewart looking abnormally slender) who's in a crossroad situation of whether or not she should kiss school jock Gabe (Graham Wardle) or the more meek and humble Eric (Dustin Milligan). And then there's the younger daughter Paige (Mackenzie Vega) who is just another fine line of the typical Hollywood castings to play the smarter beyond their age preteen kids.I'll give kudos to Brody for keeping Carter for playing a solid role as a preoccupied individual, but his part as a protagonist really lacks anything you can feel emphatic about. Ever since the opening scene with the break-up we never see any kind of emotion from Brody except for looking miserable. Maybe Sofia was in the right for dumping this sour puss to begin with. And like Stewart, Brody looks like he's also quite gaunt. Meg Ryan as Sarah shows she's not a has-been as she puts on a wonderful performance as Sarah. However, we don't get to see her that much which makes her role inferior to her glory days making romantic comedies with the likes of Billy Crystal and Tom Hanks. As for Stewart playing role more customized for Evan Rachel Wood, she still stands out as a spoiled teen who also seems to have aspirations for painting. We watch as she slaps those brushes like Jackson Pollack on a canvas and after a quick montage, she created a provocative masterpiece. But her problems still aren't as problematic as the movie makes it out to be.Kasdan from his "Freaks and Geeks" days has no problems when it comes to creating eccentric and quirky characters. But "In The Land of Women" why are all the high school characters feel very superficial? He has tremendous story lines to carry with him, the breast cancer, the affair, the break-up, but then the film teeters off to the more mundane "After School Special" teen dramas (the house party scene was painful to endure). Plus the relationships look to poorly structured it's awkward to even think about. Sarah is too old to be with Carter, plus she's still married while Carter is much older than Lucy to be in any kind of serious relationship. But I'm relieved there was nothing serious about their relationship except for the angst-relieving kiss scene. But why did it taker place on the lawn. Couldn't they do it in a bedroom?Learning a bit from his father Lawrence's legacy, Jon does give his film the right tone, but it's still inferior to the senior Kasdan's "Big Chill". Jon takes great conceit into this film making it lacking in terms of emotion. In spite of the contrivances this movie possesses, there is still a vast amount of sincerity and insightful moments in this movie. But in the end very little amounts to the characters making this film alone feel at times very empty. Kasdan is a very capable director and a writer and I hope in 2018 with a new Han Solo project coming out, we will see where his career will take off after that.

refuge after break up. new universe. and different forms of love. lessons of life. and the change. the basic virtue of film is to remind the old fashion romantic comedies. and it is not a small thing. because the humor and performances and romanticism are at the right place. sure, not at the perfect place. but the war between woman and man, the evolution of emotions, the dialogues and the feel to meet, again, after a long time, familiar situations, are the good point for this film who represents the fine definition of the discover of the other.

Writer-director Jon Kasdan puts this glossy, superficial comedy-drama together like a preconceived jigsaw puzzle. You can even count the scenes like pieces: actress dumps writer, writer discusses life with disaffected mom, writer goes to live with dying grandma, writer gets involved with unfulfilled housewife across the street, housewife has a lump in her breast, housewife's daughter can't relate to mom, housewife's husband is having an affair that nobody cares about. Meanwhile, Kasdan's dialogue sounds like it's been filtered through the mismatched scenes of a nighttime soap, an endless stream of self-conscious confessions dotted with a writer's in-jokes. We in the audience have nothing much to wait for except the teenage girl's declaration of devotion to her "cold, distant" mother, the grandma's demise, and the young man's independence from the starlet whom he never really loved. Cast is talented yet not really convincing in these roles. The film isn't even efficiently made; it's a scattershot attempt at bringing together the hearts of these emotionally-impaired people, scored with rock tunes by Huey Lewis, INXS and Bruce Springsteen. Commercial interruptions will fit right in. * from ****

After watching what seems to be obviously made someone who probably a feminist, I find myself disturbed by what is portrayed here. To be fair and honest, I found myself enjoying the film at first; from there it was all the way downhill. Once again we see Kristen once again in her stereotypical role, playing herself as it seems that I have not seen a single film with her in it that in anyway does she seem in character. To me she seems to best described as a wall where scriptwriters stick dialog scripts too. She is always expressing herself the same way and always with that annoying stutter but despite her best attempts to make the worst aspect of the film, I find myself hating what seems to developing into a picture that inspires emasculation.Too often we see pictures to day presenting and I am quoting from the film here "soft and shy" as the ideal guy. My response is an all resounding, no. This surreal depiction of what in reality bores women is in no way, anything but feminist drivel. And what is even more disturbing is the over used a&&hole stereotype guy called which I give with a loud 'ugh' Gabe. This is really getting bloody stupid. Relationships aren't black and white girls, and to be frank inspires me to be believed that anyone who doesn't understand this hasn't really grown up emotionally wise.Fortunately the lovely and beautiful Meg Ryan once again gives another great performance despite the crap script. If you want a good romance film, watch The Neighbour (2009) and James Cameron's classic, Titanic. Both will fill the wants and needs of all Romance lovers. New in town was also a really good romantic comedy and none of the characters present leads or any of their other male characters as anywhere in realm of "soft and shy". One more final word to Hollywood, you really need to try harder, how any of this crap is suppose to resemble real life or any good romance for that matter. To my memory, I don't remember Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca or even Mr. Darcy in any film or novel version of Pride and Prejudice did they seem to present such girlie introverted demeanor nor the aggressive archetypes that have been progressively destroying moral justice and the image of good men everywhere. If you want to see what I mean, watch Adam's Rib; a movie way ahead of its time.