In the Land of Women (2006)

Three minutes into this movie, we learn that Adam Brody plays a "soft-core porn" scriptwriter whose "famous" foreign-accent actress girlfriend breaks up with him, so after an hour in L.A. traffic, he arrives at his mother's home, where he volunteers to fly to Michigan and stay with his ailing grandmother (Olympia Dukakis, how far have they made you fall from "Snap out of it!"). Almost immediately he is chatted up by the angsty teen daughter across the street (Kristen Stewart, who is not as bad as everyone says) and then daily by her mother (Meg Ryan), who has problems of her own (which she expresses and emotes over with a "children's book writer," as he describes his job, but not with her family). The acting is serviceable and I cannot dislike Meg Ryan, even when the script makes no sense. This is actually the second time I have seen this film, since I caught it on streaming sometime before it arrived on disc via the mail. Many scenes seemed familiar (that's how memorable the script is) but I watched it through to the end. For that alone, I would expect to give this film 3.5 stars, but the gimpy script tugs it down to 3 stars. I hope you enjoy it! (11-20-2016)