Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn) has a wonderful life. She is the loving wife of her much older publisher husband, a proud mother, and a well-liked neighbor and friend. Her life is suddenly turned upside down when her husband decides to leave New York and move into a retirement home, as a "pre-emptive strike against decrepitude." As if that wasn't bad enough, Pippa then discovers that he had an affair with a woman younger than she is. As she finds her world quickly unraveling before her, will Pippa find a way to right the ship and get her life back on track?

"The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is about the life of Pippa Lee (Robin Wright Penn), devoted wife married to a successful publisher Herb Lee (Alan Arkin). When her husband (30 years older than Pippa) decides to move from New York to a suburban retirement community, she slowly heads toward a nervous breakdown, unbeknown to other family members. The 98-minute film is written and directed by Rebecca Miller ("The Ballad of Jack and Rose"), adapted from her own book of the same title which I have not read.

Meet 50-year-old Pippa Lee, adored by everyone, a "mystery" and "enigma." As the main story unfolds describing Pippa's erratic behaviors in her new home, she recounts her days as a young woman Pippa Sarkissian, told in flashbacks, up to the moment she meets and marries Herb. The flashbacks consist of episodes about her emotionally unstable mother, her running away from home, her taking "photos" at her aunt's home, and so on. Through the repeated flashbacks we are to know more about the life of Pippa, and in the present time she meets inscrutable 35-year-old Chris (Keanu Reeves), with whom she develops a romantic attachment.

The greatest asset of the film is Robin Wright Penn's strong performance as Pippa, without which the film might have been a mess. The impressive cast also includes Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Julianne Moore, Maria Bello, Monica Bellucci, Wynona Ryder and Blake Lively as young Pippa, and they all did a fine job.

Most episodes (of flashbacks and the main plot alike) are well-written and believable, but presented as a whole, they don't add up to much. So who is Pippa Lee? What does she want to do? I tried to like the film and Pippa (and I like Robin Wright Penn), but sorry, I couldn't bring myself to get interested in her story. Too frequent flashbacks of her life disrupt the narrative, affecting character development. Voiceovers are added when Robin Wright Penn's superb acting tells you everything. Given the subject matter of "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," the anecdotal nature of the narrative is understandable, but characters are too many, and some events here are too melodramatic, sometimes too good to be true.

Rebecca Miller's film has a unique charm of its own, with leisured pace and accurate eye for details, as well as its quirky sense of humor. Though it includes serious issues, the film itself is never too serious. "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" is not everyone's taste, but it is worth a look for the impressive acting from the cast.