The 2012 film, If I Were You, directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin and starring Marcia Gay Harden, Leonor Watling and Joseph Kell is one of those movies that while not great, is delightful and an amusing and diverting couple of hours. Harden is wonderful in it.
The story essentially is of a middle aged couple, Madelyn and Paul, and Paul’s young mistress, Lucy, an incompetent but aspiring actress. Madelyn discovers the affair, Paul suspects Madelyn knows, tells Lucy it’s all over. Madelyn follows Lucy home, and while not revealing who she is, saves her from suicide, and gets drunk with her. They make a pact to make each other’s decisions, and the film takes off. An early decision has Madelyn accompanying Lucy to an audition for an extraordinarily amateurish King Lear, and improbably, Madelyn is cast as Lear and Lucy as the fool. At Lucy’s behest, Madelyn invents a secret lover and the rest of the film deals with the entanglements and unraveling.
All quite delightful, much insightful and some out-loud funny. You’ll enjoy it.