The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 16
  3. Negative: 1 out of 16
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  1. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    83
    Flashes of dark humor and steady, grounded performances make it a welcome return for Miller, making her first film since 2005's "The Ballad of Jack and Rose."
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Liz Beardsworth
    80
    This is way more than it seems and manages to surprise and enchant throughout.
  3. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    Miller never really fleshes out all of these colorful characters in her emotionally facile script, leaving the heavy lifting to the actors. Fortunately for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Wright is more than up to the challenge.
  4. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    75
    Wright gives the title character a complexity and emotional shading often missing in this kind of ensemble comedy/drama. Pippa has the feel of a heroine in literature, rather than on the big screen.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    70
    Rebecca Miller’s fourth film is a wry, acutely observant drama.
  6. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    50
    Unfortunately, writer-director Rebecca Miller's script tries so hard to be nervous and edgy that it ultimately succeeds only in making its viewers nervous and edgy.
  7. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    It almost works. We almost care about her. A whopper of a plot twist late in the game explains Pippa's transformation as some kind of self-flagellatory penance, but by that point it feels like an afterthought.
  8. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    Awkward in ways both intended and not, the fourth feature from author and director Rebecca Miller is an attempt at a comic change of pace for the usually earnest Miller.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    The mix is Lifetime soap–meets–Woody Allen smart-set comedy, with less humor and a genteel Connecticut setting.
  10. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Robert Abele
    50
    Perched uncomfortably between flat whimsy and Lifetime movie crescendos, the coming-of-middle-age comic drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is rough going.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Alissa Simon
    50
    Feels as schizophrenic as its eponymous heroine.
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    50
    For a movie about the unpredictability of life, Pippa Lee plays it awfully safe.
  13. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    42
    By turns antic, frantic, and dull, "Pippa Lee" is unconvincing – emotionally, dramatically, filmically.
  14. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    40
    Adult children and friends watch nervously as Pippa reclaims a measure of spunk; too bad it all feels like one of those pharmaceutical ads for longer, healthier lifestyles.
  15. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    40
    In this densely populated ensemble piece, Reeves stands out as the only actor whose damaged character evokes sympathy and avoids cliché. Pippa, played by Wright Penn in near-permanent Stepford Wife mode, isn't much more than a vehicle for false epiphanies and forced rapprochements.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    20
    These actors know how to liven up a room, yet here they're forced to perform in Miller's Theater for the Overwritten.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. pressburgerpowe
    9
    This film is certainly one of the strongest of 2009. For a frame of reference, the others were Fish Tank, A Single Man, Port of Call New Orleans: Bad Lieutenant and Watchmen.

    Well done all actors here and even more so to Rebecca Miller for pulling it off with such aplomb. A movie with flashbacks that are never of the tedious, by-rote type of so many films, the structure is surprising in a very good way. Of the actors, only Zoe Kazan, daughter of Communist witchhunt namer of names, Elia Kazan, is unconvincing. Everyone else here is nigh-on perfect including Keanu Reeves who gives a lovely, understated performance while endearingly retaining certain of his acting 'tics'. If any reader of this appreciates any films in the following list, then this one will go down well too: The Secret Life of Words, the Visitor, A Single Man, Welcome to the Riley's or the Kids are All Right. There are no guns, explosions, violent twists in plot, and it doesn't rely on suspense. Nothing here is so unsubtle, but then neither is this a 'women's movie' (like Steel Magnolia's or films along those lines) or an arthouse movie. The characters are sensitively drawn and expressive while the structure of the film makes is constantly interesting.    … Full Review »
  2. Lyn
    7
    I'm a big fan of Robin Wright, whose work on screen never seems anything less than real. I thought that excellent acting by her -- and others in the cast -- elevated it above the rather disjointed melodrama it could have been. I also thought the casting was very good; Blake Lively really looked like a plausible younger version of Wright, for example.… Full Review »
  3. EggyG.
    4
    Has some great moment....but the plot was just too slow and scattered. Solid performance from 'naturally old' Robin Wright though.
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