The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009)

Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) is a woman in the prime of life. A happily married mother of two grown-up children, she is also a generous hostess and an excellent cook. Her marriage to legendary publisher Herb Lee (Alan Arkin), who is thirty years her senior, is a relationship based on partnership, and it goes without saying that she will accompany her husband during the next phase of his life. When Herb turns 80 the couple moves out of their luxury home in New York and into a formidable retirement village in Connecticut. This is an idyllic world that promises to allow the pair to spend their remaining years together in quiet comfort. But inside, Pippa Lee, is anything but happy about this prospect and, deep within her subconscious, old reflexes are awakened. Pippa Lee was not always the poised and elegant woman she is now. Her younger days were quite different, turbulent times, full of experiments with drugs and erotic escapades, times that also included a tablet-addicted mother and a rival’s suicide. Up to now it had looked as though she had been able to come to terms with her past. But here in the sterile world of this third age paradise the sins of her youth begin to look more and more attractive to her. Pippa takes up smoking again and, when she meets a good-looking man, her romantic desires are rekindled. If she is to get to the bottom of her own personality Pippa Lee must face up to her past – instead of avoiding it. Rebecca Miller: “Pippa’s real freedom lies in her ability to acquire a deeper understanding of her own life.”