It's Complicated. Maybe It's Even Subversive.

As we were leaving the movie theater after watching It's Complicated, I turned to the mate: Isn't Meryl Streep older than Alec Baldwin? Sure enough: she's 60, he's 51.

This is a very interesting departure from the usual pairing of actors old enough to be the fathers, if not grandfathers, of the young women cast as their romantic interests. Think As Good As It Gets, with Jack Nicholson pursuing Helen Hunt, Manhattan, with Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway. In The Bridges of Madison County, Streep is paired with Clint Eastwood, who is nearly two decades older.

The exception: The Graduate. Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson is the creepy married woman making a pass at Dustin Hoffman's recent college graduate -- but in real life, she was only six years older than he.