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Acting
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Directing
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Story
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Sarah Alexander
Director: Amy Heckerling
Running Time: 97 mins
I Could Never Be Your Woman is an American film about a middle-aged TV producer who falls for a young up-and-coming actor, while juggling her responsibilities as a single mother for her young daughter.
A sharply-written comedy complete with captivating drama throughout, I Could Never Be Your Woman is a great watch, and despite a couple of confusing secondary characters and story lines, the movie counts on excellent performances and fantastic dialogue throughout.
Let’s start with the film’s biggest strength: the performances, above all those from the central pair of Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd. Playing an ‘age-mismatched’ couple, Pfeiffer and Rudd are an absolute delight together, and are far more than the cheesy romantic couple than you might expect.
The film’s main message centres on showing that women over the age of 25 have value in the world, and it does a great job at that, with director Amy Heckerling bringing her own experiences to the table, alongside a passionate and genuine performance from Michelle Pfeiffer in that vein.
As a result, there’s more to I Could Never Be Your Woman than the romance between Pfeiffer and Rudd, and as wonderful as that is, the pairing I enjoyed most here was Pfeiffer and a young Saoirse Ronan, playing her young daughter.
That side of the story feels all the more genuine, as we see how Pfeiffer deals with being a single mother while simultaneously continuing to persist in her career, which is becoming ever more difficult as the men in her industry are beginning to see her and her ideas as increasingly obsolete due to her age.
That part of the film really gets under your skin, but it’s a demonstration of how strong the writing is here, as the movie manages to juggle wonderful comedy, heartfelt drama and genuinely biting social commentary all in one go, proving as captivating a watch as it is entertaining.
Admittedly, there are some things about the movie that don’t work so well. Tracey Ullman’s role as ‘Mother Nature’ is a bit too out-of-left-field, and she doesn’t really make herself relevant for much of the movie, while Sarah Alexander’s role as Pfeiffer’s dastardly young assistant is a little too cartoonish for a film that’s about something a lot more real.
Overall, I still enjoyed I Could Never Be Your Woman. Mainly thanks to strong writing throughout and great lead performances, the film is a great watch, and tells its story with impressive dramatic depth and good charisma too, which is why I’m giving it a 7.4.
