Let me make this clear right off the bat: It's Complicated is not a good "date movie." It isn't a happily-ever-after love story. It isn't a movie about the beauty of second chances or the value of just letting go and having fun. And while it's far-too-brief romantic interlude between Meryl Streep's Jane and Steve Martin's Adam might make you smile in appreciation for the guy or gal you have by your side for the evening, it's more dominant affair between Jane and her ex-husband Jake (Alec Baldwin) is more likely to make you finally see the subpar relationship you're in and give the guy or gal the boot.

Despite its title, the nuts and bolts of It's Complicated are actually relatively simple. After a bit too much to drink the night before their son's graduation, Jane and her married ex-husband find themselves not only sitting around a dinner table with their kids for the first time in ten years, but also sharing each other's bed for the first of many times in the coming week(s). A woman who has been both empowered by her last ten years of freedom and burdened by the weight of its loneliness, Jane is understandably torn between falling right back into the romance of her life and resisting its far-from-perfect reincarnation. Throw into the mix Jane's thoughtful and attentive architect (Martin) who also unknowingly pits himself against Jake for Jane's affections, and poor Jane simply doesn't know what to do.

"What is wrong with us!" Jane utters after her and Jake's first night back together. "Something feels right in the universe," follows Jake. "We're having an affair!" Jane says after another stolen afternoon. "Yes. ... maybe if we were two other people," says Jake. "I can't do this anymore," Jane tells Jake. "Is it necessary for you to always say no before you say yes?" Jake teases as he kisses her and leads her into the bedroom once again. "It can't hurt," Jane's shrink tells her. But as little reminders of why they split in the first place begin to reappear and the reality that their affair stands to impact many more people than just the two of them, Jane sees that it can hurt, and it has.

Sure, Jane and Jake's affair may cause Jane and the hilarious John Krazinski (Jane's soon-to-be son-in-law Harley) to nearly pull out their entire heads of hair before all is resolved. But really, the situation at hand is quite straightforward. Whether or not Jane and Jake are really having an affair is a question that is quickly clarified as soon Jake's younger wife Agness (Lake Bell) gets a whiff of what's going on. Although Jane may initially brush off Adam in favor of Jake, with Jake only proving himself to be increasingly self-centered by standing up Jane and failing to respect any of her boundaries and Adam revealing himself to be a man who not only listens to Jane but pays attention to both her smallest needs and greatest dreams, which man Jane should choose seems a no-brainer. However, in a world where almost all of us have given a relationship a second chance that we shouldn't have, and even the best of us have taken advantage of another's kindness, it would also be wrong to paint Jane as completely stupid or Jake as unredeemably awful.

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