A quick note to whoever cast Blake Lively as the 16-year-old version of Robin Wright Penn in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: Good on ya. No, I mean it. Seriously, wow. The actresses star in the film based on the novel of the same name by Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity, The Ballad of Jack and Rose), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this week. A story of later-in-life crisis, Pippa Lee includes lesbian characters who are part of a cast full of beautiful women. So far so good. Pippa follows the eponymous lead (played by Robin) as her life spins out of control after she moves to a retirement community with her much older husband, Herb (Alan Arkin). The story has a touch of the United States of Tara in its storyline, as Pippa starts expressing some of her suppressed emotions in her sleep.
Pippa’s private life and experiences are shown in the present and past. They include her childhood with her diet-pill addicted mother (Maria Bello, who signed on after Maggie Gyllenhaal dropped out). As a teenager (played by Blake), she ran away to live with her lesbian aunt Trish (Robin Weigert) and Trish’s girlfriend, Kat (Julianne Moore). Kat apparently takes S&M photos on the side, and in the book Pippa participates in some of the photo shoots. The book also reveals that Pippa’s first sexual experience was with a female friend. No word on whether that will make it into the movie version but, you know, fingers crossed. Rounding out the cast are Monica Bellucci as Herb’s first wife, Winona Ryder as Herb’s new mistress and Keanu Reeves as Pippa’s potential love interest. So, what do you think? Are you intrigued by Pippa’s private life? Heck, at the very least the prospect of seeing Blake in an S&M photo shoot should sell some tickets, right?
