Expecting the nutritional value of Christmas cotton candy, I instead left “It’s Complicated” convinced I’d seen the smartest, most insightful, funniest romantic comedy since “When Harry was in Seattle.” Or was it “When Sally was Sleepless?” Either way, “It’s Complicated” is the most enjoyable present you’re bound to find beneath your tree this holiday season.

Meryl Streepcqk plays Janecqk, the divorced mother of three grown children who has settled into a comfortable routine running a successful Santa Barbara bakery

restaurant. For the sake of her kids, she has maintained an amicable relationship with her ex-husband Jakecqk (Alec Baldwincqk), an attorney who left her a decade ago for a much younger woman. Things get complicated when, during a trip to New York City for their son’s graduation, Jane and Jake rekindle the cooled sparks of what was their marriage. What starts as an innocent meal together turns into the unthinkable — an affair — as Jane finds a human connection she’s missed for so long and Jake finds the sort of mature companionship he lacks at home. Jane feels out of control, yet free for the first time in years, seesawing between feelings of euphoria and guilt. Jane’s rebound guy is the guy she’s rebounding from.

Further complicating matters is Jane’s budding relationship with Adamcqk (Steve Martin)cqk, an architect she’s hired to remodel her house. Still healing from his own divorce, Adam begins to fall in love with Jane just about the time he realizes he is just one corner of a rather thorny love triangle.

When Jake and Jane’s kids discover their parents’ clandestine affair, everyone is forced to wonder if love is truly lovelier the second time around or whether it’s a grave mistake to reopen old wounds that had just begun to heal.

“It’s Complicated” is easily writer

producer/director cqkNancy Meyers’ (“Something’s Gotta Give,” “What Women Want”) best movie yet. Meyers, who specializes in romantic fare for thinking adults, has made a fun, flirty and playfully naughty film as honest as it is hilarious. The laughs occur organically and often. But there is a lot of truth behind the laughter. The film doesn’t gloss over Jane’s guilt or the consequences of her actions. When her shrink tells her the affair “couldn’t hurt,” we understand his good intentions (Jane is in danger of sealing herself off emotionally), but we know he couldn’t be more wrong. If getting herself into the affair was far easier than she imagined, extricating herself, should she chose to do so, will be an emotionally Herculean emotional task.

Following hard on a string of box office behemoths (“The Devil Wears Prada,”cqk “Mamma Mia”cqk and “Julie & Julia”cqk), Streep continues to defy the odds, delivering astonishingly rich, funny roles for women over 50 — an acting demographic that has all but withered for other women her age. Baldwin, who delights the world weekly with his marvelous comic intuition on the sublime “30 Rock,” continues to prove he is nothing short of a comedy god; while Martin, who always rises to the occasion whenever he can be bothered to choose a good script, is warmly endearing. You genuinely like both men, and at after the screening I attended, there was more than a little good-natured arguing in the lobby afterward about whether Jane made the right choice. (Hint: She did!) The rest of the cast is also pitch perfect, from Rita Wilson and Zoe Kazancqk to John Krasinskicqk, who steals every scene he’s in (hard to do when you’re in the same frame as Streep and Baldwin).

I laughed in “It’s Complicated” more than in any other film this year. Comedies, especially those for thinking adults, don’t get any funnier than this.

GRADE: A-

Cast: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Zoe Kazan, Jon Krasinski

Director: Nancy Meyers

Rated R for some drug content and sexuality

Running time: 118 minutes

Photo by The Associated Press