I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)

This story of a single mother and her young teenage daughter finding love made Jack and me laugh out loud many times. I got it from netflix because it stars Saoirse Ronan, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Paul Rudd, and was written and directed by Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Look Who's Talking (1989), Clueless (1995), more). While researching Ronan for my post on Hanna, this one, Ronan's first, was recommended. In these credits she's named Sookie Ronan and she is adorable, strong, and multi-faceted as Izzie. I wrote about Pfeiffer in Chéri, which has in common with this one that she is an older woman (40) having a relationship with a younger man. Here she is Rosie, a loving and intuitive mother, frustrated divorcée, and successful writer/producer on a TV series called "You Go, Girl," which stars twenty-somethings as high-schoolers, and the age disparity theme pops up everywhere in the first rate script, including with Jon Lovitz (Casino Jack) as Pfeiffer's ex-husband Nathan who won't act or mate in his own age range. The always reliable Paul Rudd (read Dinner for Schmucks) is great at the physical comedy from his very first appearance (you'll see it on the DVD menu screen) and his ear-to-ear grin won over Jack and me. We also appreciated Tracey Ullman (Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks (2000), and several of her own comedy shows) as Mother Nature, Fred Willard (such a hard working guy, he's got 225 acting credits and was last seen in these pages in Youth in Revolt) as a TV executive, and Sarah Alexander as Jeannie, the assistant from Hell, among others.

Okay, now I know why I hadn't heard of this. It pretty much went straight to video and never played here and no one has written why (the title could be better, in my opinion). Some interesting trivia: the first actor to be auditioned in one scene is named Neil Israel and I turned to Jack and said, "I know that name." That's because Israel is a director, writer, and Heckerling's ex-husband. Also, both Pfeiffer and Rudd were seven years older than their characters when they shot this movie, but both can carry it off. Stacey Dash (Dionne in Clueless), who plays Brianna, the star of "You Go, Girl," was 40, and the character Brianna plays is in high school, but that works in this story. There is a nice mix of 31 pop songs from many different decades (but the list is really hard to read--we couldn't at all in the living room, despite pausing it and walking right up to the TV, and I barely can here on my computer), 9 of which are listed on imdb. Rated PG-13, this is something parents could watch with their kids, probably as young as 10. Fun, lightweight entertainment, not just for girls.