Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

REVIEWED BY ERIC JONES

USA. 2009. 102 min.
Director: Don ROOS
Production Company: ESSENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT
Principle Cast: Natalie PORTMAN, Lisa KUDROW, Scott COHEN, Charlie TAHAN

To say that love is a complicated thing would be the mass understatement of human relationships. Many strive for it, few attain it in its truest of true forms, and even fewer in today’s society are able to hold onto it for whatever reason. But why is love so difficult? Why does it take so much work? And is love sometimes not enough to save a marriage? Emilia Greenleaf, played by the talented Natalie Portman, struggles to find the answers to these age-old inquiries in the witty drama Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, set against the backdrop of New York City, providing an apt environment to mirror the fast-paced and fleeting nature of love.

Whenever we encounter movies about love or “chick flicks,” most of us put on our critical shield before the movie even begins, convincing ourselves that love itself is an illusion and that most films concerning the subject are fairy tales rather than romantic comedies. But I can assure you that Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is not your ordinary story of “Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Girl gets mad at boy for revealing a secret. Boy apologizes, and boy and girl are in love at the end of the movie.” And its atypical storyline underlies the message that this film is trying to get across: love is anything and everything but easy; it’s a constant struggle that requires compromise on both sides.

The very title of the movie suggests that love comes with much more baggage attached to it, all of which can prove to be elusive to some that appeared to have had a grasp on love in the beginning. Despite other criticism, the acting, in my opinion, serves the purpose intended by displaying the many facets of love in a profound way without sugar-coating it with unrealistic events that may distort how love is applicable to life outside of film. Natalie Portman, known for her recent, memorable roles in V for Vendetta and Closer, utilizes her wide range of acting talents as she heads a stellar cast, including Friends alum Lisa Kudrow, who plays the vindictive shrew Carolyne Soule.

The film begins with associate lawyer Emilia Greenleaf (Portman) getting adjusted to a new law firm under married Senior Partner Jack Soule. After working together in Oakland, California on a joint case, Emilia and Jack begin a salacious affair that mixes business with a whole lot of pleasure. Unhappy with his marriage to Carolyne, who is a successful OBGYN, Jack soon leaves his wife, but continues to share joint custody of their son Will. Not long after the divorce, Jack marries Emilia, who does not get along well with the precocious and sarcastic Will (like mother, like son).

The plot then flash-forwards a few years in advance, elapsing a time in which we learn that Emilia and Jack had a baby named Isabel that died at 3 days old. Natalie Portman does an incredible job of playing that stepmother we all love to hate—the one that has an intense love for her own flesh and blood, but sometimes takes some of her frustration out on the stepchild. For instance, Emilia takes Will to a diner and insists that he order ice cream even though Carolyn would object on the behalf of Will’s lactose intolerance. Actions like this place her in the crossfire between her husband and Carolyne. After discovering what happened, Carolyne cuts Emilia’s parenting skills, saying, “Children aren’t safe around you…I think we’ve proven that.”

Although time has passed since Isabel’s death, we know that Emilia has not even come within reach of gaining closure, and her emotional withdrawal drives a wedge deeper and deeper between her and Jack. In the emotional zenith of the entire film, Jack and Emilia attack the most important problem at fault: love. Jack accuses Emilia of not loving Will at all and even pushing him away after the tragic death of their daughter. Jack questions how Emilia can love him as a husband when he is just like her father, who Emilia loathes for the way he cheated on her mother. In addition, Jack tells Emilia that she just is not the right fit for him and Will—ouch!

Within their back-and-forth exchange, Emilia makes a jaw-dropping revelation: she thinks that she smothered Isabel when breast feeding her the night she died. Although Jack dismisses her claim, Emilia goes into the details of what she believes happened. After she and Jack separate, Emilia still can’t forgive herself for what she thinks she did to her only child; however, an unexpected call from Carolyne shows a change in character for the bitter ex-wife. She tells Emilia that Will asked her to look into Isabel’s exact cause of death. He understood how much Emilia loved Isabel, and he wanted to do it for Isabel.

The new autopsy confirmed the original one performed—that Isabel died from an unfortunate case of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and not as a result of Emilia smothering her with her breasts.

Later, Carolyne, who becomes pregnant, is set to be married, but Will doesn’t want to go in the chapel. Guess who Jack calls in order to motivate Will? Emilia! This shows the increasing warmth of the once cold relationship between stepmother and stepson. She tells Will his favorite story about Lyle the Crocodile, which brings a smile on his face. Will then tells Emilia that maybe she’s the Lyle of their family; she may not always do the right things and/or fit in, but they are still a family.

The film concludes with a scene with Emilia and Will at Central Park. We assume that Emilia and Jack have reconciled as we learn that they have had another child, named Blair. Emilia presents Will with a toy ship as a birthday gift, but it isn’t Will’s birthday; it’s Isabel’s birthday. Although this is the last scene, it is a heartwarming one as it is the first scene in which Emilia and Will verbalize that they love each other.

Love and Other Impossible Pursuits is worth seeing no matter where you stand on the battlefield of love. Whether you believe it is an elusive endeavor or whether you are an eternal hopeful for true love, this movie explores the many stages of love that affect our relationships, not just romantic ones, that we have in life. Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow, and the rest of the supporting cast add value to the realistic theme and approach of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits: that not everything, most notably love, always works out the way we would hope.