Nancy Meyers gets the cover of the NY Times magazine this Sunday with a very long piece by Daphne Merkin. I have no qualms about admitting that I am a big Nancy Meyers fan. There are many different reasons for my admiration of Nancy, one big one being the fact that she makes the movies she wants to make. There are lots of people who have issues with Nancy Meyers movies. Among the reasons people give are that her films are light, fluffy, stupid, make women act stupid, are horribly written, unrealistic, and too white.
Yes, Nancy Meyers creates a rich, white world populated by women (and men) but focused on women that none of us are ever going to live in. I look at the houses in Nancy Meyers movies (and the houses are so important they are like characters themselves) and I see the beautiful throw pillows, the gorgeous bedrooms and bathrooms, and I know I am on Fantasy Island. But honestly, I don’t think it’s any different than the world of Sex & the City.
But what Nancy Meyers does better than anyone is make these women relatable to other women, and those women go out and buy tickets to her films. That’s why she gets paid the very big bucks and has final cut of her films. (According to the article she makes $12 million a movie not including movie she makes on the grosses.) Of course I know that I won’t be able to write a play in the throes of a breakup and then have it produced on Broadway…but knowing that didn’t make me like the film (Something’s Gotta Give) any less. I think it made me like the film MORE because Diane Keaton’s character was so competent.
Here’s what Diane Keaton said about her:
“She’s a pioneer with regard to representing older women,” Diane Keaton said over lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel. “She’s the only one delivering the fantasy for women over 55. You’re beautiful, charming and you get two guys instead of one.”
Fuck yeah.
I think that’s one of the hidden gems (and many one of the reasons why people hate Meyers) is that she portrays middle aged white women and competent and complex. She shows women as multi-layered and that’s refreshing.
Meyers is supposedly a very difficult director. She does a lot of retakes. It takes a long time to make her films. So she does a lot of takes. The only reason why this gets so highly scrutinized is because there are so few other women working at her level. And other women in Hollywood know that she is paving the way for the future.
Here’s a quote from Callie Khouri:
“Nancy inspires a tremendous amount of hope in me,” she says. “She’s defied the conventional wisdom that women are over — both societally and professionally — past a certain age. I root for her in the way I do for all women who are trying to sledgehammer a hole into the wall of an audience and an output that’s almost exclusively male-dominated.”
Here are some other tidbits from the piece that I found interesting:
And this being a Nancy Meyers movie, men are as subject to critical scrutiny via the female gaze as women are subject to the male gaze.
I also found it very interesting to note that since she broke up with Charles Shyer over a decade ago, she has grown in stature as she moved into directing and he has well, not done as well (ie Alfie- need I say more?)
She is valued first and foremost for her track record at the box office; each of her post-Shyer movies has surpassed $200 million in revenue worldwide. Meyers is also paid for generating “creative value for the studio,” says Jeff Berg, chairman of I.C.M. and her longtime agent. “Studios like to have success,” Berg says, “and then they like to have the halo effect, whereby the films reflect positively on the taste of the studio.”
This woman has clout, power and respect in Hollywood. That is something we need to note and to learn from. She is another woman who used her writing to propel her into directing and most of the successful female directors have been going that route.
I am the first one to admit the soft spot in my heart for all things Nancy Meyers. The woman has written some of movies that I can watch over and over again. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched Baby Boom. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched Something’s Gotta Give. Even the Father of the Bride films are rewatchable and I tell everyone that The Holiday is a misunderstood gem especially the relationship between Eli Wallach and Kate Winslet.
See you at the theatre on Christmas Day! Can’t wait.
Can Anybody Make a Movie for Women (NY Times Magazine)
I love when I get my 
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