Marcia Gay Harden once received a well-earned Academy Award for her role as expressionist painter Lee Krasner, opposite Ed Harris’ title character in “Pollock.” Twelve years later, Harden shows that her acting abilities have persisted, perhaps even evolved over time, but her ability to choose successful starring roles has clearly diminished.
Comprised of many jumping-the-shark circumstances, “If I Were You” appropriately starts off running when Madelyn (Marcia Gay Harden), a tired wife and worker, finds her husband Paul (Joseph Kell) out on a romantic dinner date with a younger woman, Lucy (Leonor Watling). After Paul spontaneously breaks off their secret rendezvous, Lucy goes home in tears, preparing to hang herself. Taking note of her damaged state of mind, Madelyn follows Lucy home in an attempt to stop her, inadvertently earning her unconditional appreciation and trust in the process.
The overlong two hours of film continue with further complications for all characters involved. Madelyn attempts to manipulate Lucy to her advantage only to find herself in a competition of vengeful spite and helpful concern for her new airheaded friend. Their confused love triangle morphs into an even odder sort of love pentagon when two others (Aidan Quinn and Gary Piquer) join the mix. The story ends up pitting each individual in a feud of knowledge and ignorance alike as they attempt to one-up each other with their own jumbled understanding of the situation.
The cast is, above all, what keeps “If I Were You” from being a disastrous failure of comedic proportions. Harden’s balance of emotional instability and her role as a justified female figure manages to make any monotonous interaction with other characters a little more interesting. In the rare scenes where they are given enough to work with, supporting members such as Watling and late arrival Quinn also provide a fitting display of poignant resonance and humorous relevance. Unfortunately, this occurs less frequently than should be anticipated from a film about bewildered wooers.
It isn’t necessarily that “If I Were You” sports a terrible script, just one that isn’t very good. Director and screenwriter Joan Carr-Wiggin tries her best to give significance to all the parts in her plot with limited amounts of success. Occasional moments of comedic triumph and memorable one-liners are overshadowed by several drawn-out conversations and important confrontations that lead nowhere. Plot devices including the troubling illness of Madelyn’s mother and an amateur production of “King Lear” that Madelyn and Lucy become involved in are witty attempts at metaphoric subtext. However, the failure of their execution will disappoint anyone hoping for a hint to Carr-Wiggin’s cluttered puzzle of a story.
One of the most aggravating displays of the movie’s “bigger on the inside” state of mind is its conclusion. Structured around the already late-coming and overly silly production of “King Lear,” it attempts to provide good feelings and reflectivity without actually providing a resolution to the story. Though the film quickly starts with a remarkably interesting premise, this ending of sorts only proves the developing notion that over the course of its two hours, “If I Were You” only goes downhill. Even with Harden’s applicable Tony Award-winning talent and devotion, he can’t save the film from the tragic suicide it steadily heads toward.
With a sufficient amount of heart, Carr-Wiggin and her cast find a pleasing basis for an odd love story without the ability to grasp its grand potential for entertainment. “If I Were You” may survive as a passable romantic comedy for those seeking such a film, but little beyond that. It carefully balances on the line between being a disappointment for moviegoers of all shapes and sizes, and a film with just enough good intentions and smaller pieces of success to keep it from failing completely. Fortunately, it leans toward the latter.