×

In the Land of Women

A strong cast struggles valiantly to rise above Lifetime material in "In the Land of Women," an appealingly scruffy if overly programmatic drama. Writer-director Jonathan Kasdan's tale about a young man emergence from his relational cocoon rests squarely on the shoulders of its trio of talented lead actors, whose names should draw a limited audience to the Warner Independent Pictures feature.

By
Justin Chang

Justin's Most Recent Stories

View All
Ron Yerxa
With:
With: Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Makenzie Vega, Elena Anaya, Clark Gregg.

A strong cast struggles valiantly to rise above Lifetime material in “In the Land of Women,” an appealingly scruffy if overly programmatic drama. Writer-director Jonathan Kasdan’s tale about a young man emergence from his relational cocoon rests squarely on the shoulders of its trio of talented lead actors, whose names should draw a limited audience to the Warner Independent Pictures feature.

Played by “The OC’s” Adam Brody in his patented so-dorky-he’s-cool fashion, 26-year-old aspiring writer Carter Webb has just been dumped by his supermodel g.f. Sophia (Elena Anaya). Leaving L.A., Carter moves in with his half-deranged grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) in suburban Michigan, where he becomes entangled with beautiful housewife Sarah Hardwicke (Meg Ryan, radiating her trademark charm in a much lower key) and her adolescent daughter Lucy (Kristen Stewart). Pic doesn’t provide a clear sense of where it’s headed early on, which is why the eventual developments can’t help but feel derivative. Dialogue alternates between insightful and twee, yet Kasdan elicits strong performances all around.

In the Land of Women

Production: A Warner Independent Pictures release of a Castle Rock Entertainment presentation of an Anonymous Content production. (International sales: Kathy Morgan Intl., Los Angeles.) Produced by Steve Golin, David Kanter. Executive producer, Lawrence Kasdan. Co-producer, Barbara Kelly. Directed, written by Jonathan Kasdan.

Crew: Camera (Technicolor, Panavision widescreen), Paul Cameron; editor, Carol Littleton; production designer, Sandy Cochrane; art director, Margot Ready; costume designer, Trish Keating; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), David Husby; supervising sound editor, Joel Shryack; assistant director, Paul K. Barry; casting, Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich Gelfond, Wendy Weidman. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (market), May 20, 2006. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 97 MIN.

With: With: Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Makenzie Vega, Elena Anaya, Clark Gregg.

More Film

  • Feels Good Man

    'Feels Good Man': Film Review

    When is a cartoon frog not just a cartoon frog? When he’s Pepe, the brainchild of artist Matt Furie, who in 2005 created the laid-back anthropomorphic amphibian for a comic about post-collegiate slacker life, only to subsequently watch as the character was adopted as a symbol of white nationalist hate by the alt-right and Donald [...]

  • The Nest

    'The Nest': Film Review

    All work and no play makes Rory O’Hara a dull boy — which is to say, one can scarcely overlook the connections between Sean Durkin’s subtly unsettling second feature, “The Nest,” and Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” even if this is by far the more tedious of the two movies. While the obsessive dad Law plays [...]

  • Tiziana Soudani

    Tiziana Soudani, Prominent Swiss Producer, Dies

    Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, who through her Amka Films shepherded prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher and Silvio Soldini, as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa, has died after a struggle with brain cancer. She was in her mid 60s, though her exact age was not immediately verifiable. [...]

  • Time's Up U.K. Teams With British

    British Stars Carey Mulligan, Himesh Patel Compile 'Alternative BAFTA' Nominees List

    British stars including Carey Mulligan, Himesh Patel and Gemma Arterton have contributed to an ‘Alternative BAFTAs’ list of nominees that honors talent overlooked by this year’s awards. The campaign is organized by Time’s Up U.K., which is rolling out a social media blitz this week in the lead-up to Sunday’s BAFTA awards honoring the women [...]

  • Rebecca Hall appears in The Night

    'The Night House': Film Review

    A knack for creepy atmospherics and individual scares goes a long way in the horror genre, and it takes “The Night House” pretty far. Though this tale of a new widow’s apparent haunting gets progressively lost in a narrative maze that’s complicated without being particularly rewarding, . Rebecca Hall plays Beth, an upstate New York [...]

  • Herself

    Amazon Studios Buys Phyllida Lloyd's 'Herself' (EXCLUSIVE)

    Amazon Studios has nabbed North American rights to Phyllida Lloyd’s “Herself,” an Irish drama about a woman who builds her dream house after escaping an abusive marriage, Variety has learned.  The streaming service is planning a theatrical release for later this year. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it enjoyed a warm [...]

  • Blast Beat

    'Blast Beat': Film Review

    Back home in Bogota, teen brothers Carly and Mateo — played by siblings (and Disney Channel veterans) Mateo and Moisés Arias — are metal-blasting, skateboard-riding punks, and reluctant partners in crime. Carly, the sensible one, can’t prevent Mateo from dynamiting a dollhouse. But he’ll swoop in, hair flapping like a vampire’s cape, to rescue his [...]

More From Our Brands

Access exclusive content

© 2020 Penske Media Corporation

ad