Emilia Greenleaf (Natalie Portman) is the hated 2nd wife to Jack Woolf (Scott Cohen) in Manhattan. Her stepson William (Charlie Tahan) hates her. He keeps taking digs at her dead baby. She was a paralegal who had an affair with the married Jack. He divorced his doctor wife Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow) to marry her when she got pregnant. Carolyn had poisoned William's mind against Emilia. Just as Emilia has a good day with William, Jack tells her that Carolyn is pregnant.

The kid is so annoying. I understand that he needs to be annoying but there is something extra problematic with the performance. It would be helpful for Tahan to show that he knows that he's doing harm but he's playing it very flat. He needs to smile or any emotion after breaking her down each time. He's playing this like Damien from The Omen. The audience needs to get inside of his mind. I don't need to like the kid but he needs to show that he's human. It may be unfair to ask for a master performance from a child actor but this role really needs it. Natalie Portman acts her brains out but I don't care about any of their relationships. This could be an interesting relationship movie about Emilia and William but it's not really there.

In Manhattan, the twenty-two year-old Harvard lawyer Emilia Greenleaf (Natalie Portman) has a crush on her boss Jack Woolf (Scott Cohen) and they have a love affair. Jack has a wasted marriage with his wife, the prominent and snobbish Dr. Carolyne (Lisa Kudrow),and their only son William (Charlie Tahan) is his pride and joy. When Emilia gets pregnant, Jack divorces from Carolyne and marries her. The intelligent William is poisoned by his mother and resented with his stepmother. Emilia, who has issues with her womanizer father, delivers Isabel and three days later, the baby dies. Her dysfunctional family with Jack and William never works and Carolyne makes her relationship with William harder and harder. When Emilia reveals to Jack that he might have killed Isabel, their marriage ends. But surprisingly William asks his mother to help Emilia to learn the truth about the death of Isabel.

"Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" is a promising story with interesting subplots that are superficially approached and in the end becomes a boring and shallow soap-opera. I do not recall any other movie with so many "- I am sorry" and inconvenient arguments and comments in front of a child like Emilia and Carolyne do in this film in front of William. Natalie Portman's character spends most of the time whining and her behavior seems to be incompatible for a woman graduated in Harvard. I do not know who might have the twisted sense of humor to categorize this film as a comedy. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "As Coisas Impossíveis do Amor" ("The Impossible Things of Love")

I may have seen a review or discussion for this film on television, it sounded like something I was willing to give a try, and with her recent Oscar win for Black Swan I was intrigued more with the inclusion of the leading actress. Basically twenty two year Emilia Greenleaf (Natalie Portman) is an aspiring Harvard lawyer in Manhattan who despite him being married had a strong crush on her good looking boss and senior partner Jack Woolf (Scott Cohen),and they begin an affair. His marriage with his wife Carolyn (Lisa Kudrow) was a sham, but the son that they had together, five year old William (Charlie Tahan),is his pride and joy, and his marriage finally comes to end when he discovers Emilia is pregnant, divorces his wife and marries his new partner. The only trouble for Emilia is that she cannot bond very well with Jack's son William, the little boy has been poisoned against her and the partnership by Carolyn, and she equally resents him and going backwards and forwards at moments in time we see why she gains this attitude. She already had her own problems with her father who cheated on her mother and constantly womanises, but it is after the death of her baby Isabel that the problems really started between the husband and wife and the child. The baby was born and absolutely fine, but after only three days of life it died in Emilia's arms, she assumes that while sleeping she must have unintentionally smothered Isabel against her, and William does not help the situation asking her questions about it, such as suggesting selling stuff on eBay, specifically the unneeded cribs and toys. As the marriage between her and Jack slowly starts breaking apart because of her grief and feeling of guilt, William unexpectedly is the one who may bring them back together, and in a rare moment of sympathy Carolyn also offers her some comfort, and she is the one that confirms that baby Isabel died from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome),so Emilia and the family can move on. Also starring Lauren Ambrose as Mindy, Michael Cristofer as Sheldon, Debra Monk as Laura and Elizabeth Marvel as Pia. Portman is relatively good as the mother trying hard to keep her family but struggling with terrible grief, high guilt and domestic stress, Cohen does alright as the husband trying to help, and Kudrow is actually a good choice as the bitchy ex-wife trying to cause more problems. The story certainly has its needed moving moments, and obviously it is a realistic situation, the only problem is that it is not all paced the right way, the emotions seem a bit too much on occasions, and to be honest I got bored before half way through, so it was a disappointing drama. Adequate!