Plot

A mother falls for a younger man while her daughter falls in love for the first time. Mother Nature messes with their fates.

Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer), a 40-year-old divorced mother produces the has-been television comedy "You Go Girl," which seems doomed since her boss no longer allows the show to tackle any vaguely-controversial subjects. Then she meets Adam (Paul Rudd) , an attractive, spontaneously funny, single, 29-year-old actor at an audition. She successfully casts him, which revives the show's ratings. She also dates him, but her pathological insecurity, focused on their age difference, compromises the relationship. That culminates when she suspects him of infidelity with the show's star, and the studio gives those two their own sitcom.—KGF Vissers

A woman ages in Hollywood. Divorced mom Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) writes and produces a sitcom set at a high school. She depends on her daughter Izzie (Saoirse Ronan) for slang. The long-in-the-tooth show gets new life when Rosie hires Adam (Paul Rudd) to play an awkward nerd. As Izzie hits puberty, puts away her Barbie dolls, and sets her sights on her first love, Rosie finds herself attracted to Adam, who's 11 years her junior. Things seem to go well until they don't. What's behind the miscommunication: Hollywood egos, ageism, or men's natural attraction to younger women? Meanwhile, Izzie finds her voice. Does Rosie need Mother Nature's help, or is that the worst idea possible?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

40-year-old divorced Rosie Hanson is the showrunner for "You Go Girl", a scripted television show aimed primarily at the teenage-girl market. Beyond the drama she regularly goes through with the show's star, diva Brianna Minx who is going through issues in her personal life well beyond the teenager she portrays on the show, Rosie is going through her own teen drama at home as her only offspring, 13-year-old Izzie--wise beyond her years in some respects and still a little girl in others-- is going through her first case of puppy love for classmate Dylan, while doubting that he even notices her as a member of the opposite sex. Both Rosie and her ex-husband Nathan are clinging to their youth with every fiber of their beings, using any available cosmetic options; Nathan has managed to land another girlfriend, but Rosie has not dated since their divorce. Casting a supporting-teen role for the show, Rosie meets Adam Pearl, the only person auditioning who has any real talent, who gets the part despite obviously being well past his teens. On his initiative, Adam and Rosie start to date despite Rosie's concern about their age difference (she eventually learns that he's precisely 29). Regardless of what Rosie does to cling on to her youth and Adam does for Rosie to see him more than the comic persona he puts on to hide his insecurities, the question becomes whether they actually have a future together, with other obstacles thrown in, such as someone behind the scenes trying to sabotage things for her own benefit, Along the way, Rosie turns to an exasperated Mother Nature for advice, lamenting all that her baby-boomer generation has done in society to subvert all that Rosie's generation, the baby boomers, have done in society to subvert the course of nature.—Huggo

Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a 40-year-old divorced mother who works as a scriptwriter and producer for a TV show You Go Girl. Rosie is insecure about her age and uses cosmetics to maintain her appearance. She has a very close relationship with her thirteen-year-old daughter, Izzie (Saoirse Ronan), which becomes even closer when she learns that Izzie has fallen for a boy in her class named Dylan (Rory Copus). Izzie wants to have sex at 15, but Rosie advises her to wait till she goes to college at 18. Izzie has just had her first period.

Despite her ex-husband's (Nathan Mensforth (Jon Lovitz)) urging that she start dating again, Rosie has no man in her life. To the dismay of Rosie and David (David Mitchell), her British co-writer, her boss Marty (Fred Willard) decides that the show may no longer cover controversial subjects (gays, teen pregnancies, racial strife etc. etc.), so Rosie decides to cast a new character for the show. She is taken by Adam (Paul Rudd), a bright and charming young man from one of her auditions, and decides to cast him as a new, nerdy character to fall for the character played by her arrogant and self-centered lead actress, Brianna (Stacey Dash). Adam's character is well received by test audiences, and Rosie persuades Marty to give him a chance. Brianna hates Adam as she does not like to share any spotlight, but Rosie convinces her that Adam can be good for the show, as well as Brianna's own ratings.

As she continues to offer Izzie advice on Dylan, Rosie becomes smitten by Adam, who suggests they go out to a club together. When he comes to pick her up, Adam bonds with Izzie immediately, helping her complete a mission on a video game she was playing in order to impress Dylan. While there, Rosie lies about her age and says that she's 37, while Adam says that he is 32. Rosie is nervous about the age difference, but when he goes onto the dance floor at the nightclub, she realizes he is as free spirited as her, and joins him. The two kiss in Adam's car, during which Rosie admits that she's actually 40, only to be startled when Adam reveals that he's actually 29.

Adam assures her that he doesn't care about their age difference at all, and the two continue their relationship. Nevertheless, Rosie's insecurity over her age begins to come out, egged on by her internal conversations with Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman), and she confesses to Adam that she is not sure that their relationship is going to work, to his confusion.

Meanwhile, their relationship draws the jealousy of Rosie's secretary, Jeannie (Sarah Alexander), who begins to sabotage them by stealing all of Adam's gifts to Rosie, and then by stealing Adam's phone, taking a photograph of Brianna in a compromising position with it (which she got off the internet), and then putting it in Rosie's handbag, which does not succeed. Rosie continues to be nervous when she hears a recording of Adam flirting with Brianna (he had been encouraged to in order to keep her calm and the center of attention). Things become worse when Izzie has a failed double date with Dylan, and she starts to become insecure about her own appearance, something that concerns Rosie.

When Adam is first shown on television, he is an instant hit, and he starts to become famous from it. This leads to Rosie becoming even more insecure and worrying that Adam will take advantage of his fame and start looking at younger women. Her situation worsens further when her show is unexpectedly canceled. Shortly after, Adam is given a role in an upcoming sitcom, and she is shocked to discover a speeding ticket sent to Adam showing him in a car with Brianna. Already in a foul mood, Rosie is forced to berate Izzie when, during a chance encounter with her friend, Henry Winkler, he reveals that Izzie and her friend had prank-called a number of celebrities in her phone book.

She confronts Adam with the photograph of him with Brianna, and he is shocked, having never been in a car with her before. Rosie angrily breaks up with him. Despite this, Adam makes numerous attempts to reconcile with her, including refusing to film the new sitcom he has been offered to take part in until she is named a co-producer. Meanwhile, Rosie is looking through a bloopers reel of her old show, when she realizes that it was filmed at the time that the speeding ticket claimed Adam had been driving with Brianna and deduces that the only person who could have sent it was Jeannie. She proceeds to confront Jeannie when Marty calls her to his office to offer her a job on Adam's sitcom, and hits Jeannie in the face, reducing Jeannie to tears.

She then reconciles with Adam. Later, at a school talent show, she sees Izzie has finally succeeded in winning Dylan over, and watches as the two kiss. Mother Nature reminds her that, in growing older, she is making way for a girl like Izzie to replace her.