The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 73
Fresh: 49 | Rotten: 24
Reverential and offbeat, the road trip film Private lives of Pippa Lee takes emotional detours and is elevated by great performances, particularly that of Robin Wright-Penn.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 9
Reverential and offbeat, the road trip film Private lives of Pippa Lee takes emotional detours and is elevated by great performances, particularly that of Robin Wright-Penn.
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Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 17,416
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Movie Info
Rebecca Miller (The Ballad of Jack & Rose) adapts her own novel with this comedy drama about a woman who begins a second life after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Pippa Lee (Robin Wright) is the loving mother of two grown children, and the wife of successful publisher Herb (Alan Arkin). Despite the fact that she's 30 years Herb's junior, Pippa and her husband have never fallen short on things to talk about. She's always enjoyed the hustle and bustle of New York, but after Herb
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Cast
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Robin Wright
Pippa Lee -
Blake Lively
Young Pippa -
Alan Arkin
Herb Lee -
Keanu Reeves
Chris Nadeau -
Maria Bello
Suky Sarkissian -
Zoe Kazan
Grace Lee -
Winona Ryder
Sandra Dulles -
Mike Binder
Sam Shapiro -
Monica Bellucci
Gigi Lee -
Ryan McDonald
Ben Lee -
Julianne Moore
Kat -
Shirley Knight
Dot -
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All Critics (74) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (24) | DVD (1)
As a woman under the influence of everyone but herself, Pippa often feels lost when she's on her own - a blank slate with no one holding a chalk - Robin Wright Penn allows us to get to know a character who still doesn't really know herself.
Top CriticThere's a deliberate quality to the storytelling that makes the movie drag in many scenes; and yet, numerous characters flit by that we don't have time to really meet.
The movie has the busy-aimless feeling of a cocktail party rather than a rigorously constructed drama. Interesting people drift through, anecdotes are shared, attention shifts here and there, and abruptly it's time to go.
A superb performance by Robin Wright Penn illuminates Rebecca Miller's intelligent and revealing look at the inner wild child beneath a 50-ish Connecticut matron.
Awkward in ways both intended and not.
By turns antic, frantic, and dull, Pippa Lee is unconvincing -- emotionally, dramatically, filmically.
... for once in a [Rebecca] Miller film, the chuckles are generally intentional ...
Penn is such an intelligent performer that it's easy for us to believe everyone else in the film sees a different side -- a different life -- of the enigmatic Pippa Lee -- and that there are still many other sides to this fascinating character...
Robin Wright Penn gives an award-caliber performance in the title role of a woman trying to find her place in the scheme of things after moving with her older husband to a retirement village in suburban Connecticut.
All the midnight bulimic binges, suicide attempts, sleepwalking, marital chicanery, and little pills don't mean a thing compared to the thrill of being a middle-aged woman sneaking through the bedroom window like a teenager in heat.
Just as The Twilight Saga: New Moon taps into to the sexual yearnings and psychic disturbances of pubescent girls, so does The Private Lives of Pippa Lee for the perimenopausal crowd.
The movie holds your interest with a series of loosely connected episodes, but leaves you in a frozen and distant state.
Provides a nice role for Robin Wright Penn, but it's a film in search of a tone.
Perhaps "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" might have been a stronger film had it focused on a single private life instead of a cornucopia of them.
The results are honorable but not terribly interesting.
Penn is the best thing about the movie.
Audience Reviews for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Robin Wright performs naturally and makes her character hold more depth and presence then was imaginable. And Blake Lively performs her part so beautifully.
Believe me about Winona Ryder's character does remind me and looked familiar to her 1999's Girl, Interrupted character role - so impressive!
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Foreign Titles
- Pippa Lee (DE)
- Les vies privées de Pippa Lee (FR)
Blake Lively is excellent as the younger Pippa, as is Robin Wright as the older one.
I really wished I had paid more attention by the end, I think this one deserves a rewatch and is the kind of movie that will grow on you as you find yourself thinking of it the next day. Subtle, but beautifully done.