Movie Review: Men, Women & Children

In this day and age of texting and social media, Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking) takes us behind the scenes into the lives of several Men, Women & Children.

This film follows several teenagers and their parents, exploring their relationships with each other and how technology now plays a role in those relationships.  There is Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever), who has the overbearing mother (Jennifer Garner) who tracks and monitors everything she does online.  Tim (Ansel Elgort) who just wants to play his online game, but his father (Dean Norris) wants him to be the football star.  Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia) who wants to be a star, and the mother (Judy Greer) who is trying to live vicariously through her.  Chris (Travis Tope), who doesn't seem to have a real relationship with his parents (Adam Sandler & Rosemarie DeWitt), but does have an unnatural relationship with his bizarre internet porn.  And finally Allison (Elena Kampouris) who lost way too much weight to get noticed by a boy.  Her parents (J.K. Simmons & Tina Parker) seem to realize her problem, but keep their distance about it.

Did we hit all of the teenage tropes in this film?  Check.  However, the approach to these issues is one worth taking.  This film delved into the role that technology plays now with teens and even adults.  The real problem is that this great discussion piece was taken up and totally mishandled.  The tone of the film just didn't land with me.  It was trying to be a serious discussion about these relationships, which is great, but the characters were written so exaggeratingly over-the-top that it was too hard to take them serious.  The characters, especially the adults, were taken to the extreme edge of the stereotypes they were portraying to the point of being comical, all the while asking you to really invest in them.  Sandler and DeWitt have a sexless marriage.  Barely was a conversation started before he started masterbating to his son's internet porn (creepy), and then both he and his wife just jumped right into affairs.  Judy Greer got so engrossed in making her daughter look good on her website that she practically turned it into child pornography.  Jennifer Garner's character was the one I found the most over-exaggerated.  She spent her evenings reading every last word that went in and out of her daughter's phone and computer.  She also intercepted messages and deleted even the most simple, innocent messages without asking the daughter what they might have been about.  She also watched every movement her child made with the use of GPS.  I realize that there are parents out there that are quite extreme like these (and that scares the living daylights out of me), but I feel like this film took that extreme just one step to far with nearly all the characters to the point of ridiculousness.

I can say there are a couple of redeeming factors though.  One is the acting.  I thought that for what they were given, many of the actors did an excellent job.  It was good to see Adam Sandler take a more serious role again after some of his ridiculous comedies as of late.  Although Garner's character was one of the worst, I though she played it straight and she played it well.  Judy Greer had some funny and touching scenes.  The big stand-out roles, however, went to Kaitlyn Dever and Ansel Elgort.  I thought they were fantastic.  Part of that was because their characters seemed the most relatable in the film, and part was because they just simply were that good.  This was good because their little love story seemed to be the main focus of the film.

Having this one good storyline and all the good acting couldn't save this sinking ship though.  On top of being overbearing, there were also just simply too many storylines going on.  It made the film seem to go on forever.  This is one of those rare movies that at certain points had me staring at the screen wondering if we were nearing the end yet.  That is never a good sign.

Overall, like I said, this film really dropped the ball.  I think this society's addiction to texting and social media and how it is affecting us should be a serious discussion.  This film tried to take that serious route.  Heck it even had shots from a satellite light years away looking at the tiny Earth, with a voice-over from Emma Thompson talking about how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things.  They just needed to tone down the characters a little and drop one or two of the side stories to add more focus.  It had potential, but this is not one you need to seek out.

Rating: ***------- (3 out of 10) [don't go out of your way]

Memorable Quote:

Joan: I have installed a camera in my daughter's brain, and a seven digit pin code on her vagina.



Movie Review: Draft Day

In Draft Day, the latest from Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), we get a day in the life of Sonny Weaver, Jr (Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams).  He is the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns whose father, the previous GM, has recently passed away.  The majority of the film takes place on the NFL draft day following Sonny from the time he gets up until draft itself.  It's a behind the scenes look at who he's going to pick, trades he makes, and the draft that ensues.

Yeah, I didn't thing that sounded like a real exciting plot either, but this movie has a lot going for it in my opinion.  First is the plot itself.  They took something that doesn't seem real exciting and made you feel how stressful it could really be.  Sonny has to take final looks at his draft prospects and find out if there is anything about them that they missed before.  There are trades offered from other GM's and there is conflict within his own franchise.  A clock is also occasionally thrown up on screen giving the countdown until the draft.  It gives a sort of feeling of pressure seeing the clock count down as he unveils more trades and info.

The strongest part of the whole film is the cast.  Kudos to the casting director because these guys all play well off each other.  On top of all the stress of the day, he of course has a love interest who is also the funds manager of the team, Ali (Jennifer Garner, Dallas Buyers Club).  The relationship adds to the stress of his decision making, and their onscreen chemistry is pretty good.

Through the whole film Sonny is trying his hardest to put together the best team he can.  However, he is a man who cares about character as well as stats and wants to go with his gut.  This is where he butts heads with the owner (Frank Langella, Robot & Frank) and Coach Penn (Denis Leary, The Ref).  They both think the golden ticket is the man with the best stats.  Costner and Leary's scenes together may be where the movie shines brightest.  All of the supporting roles really hit for me as well, from the prospective picks, to his mother, to the other GMs.  Reitman also threw in a little comic relief to lighten the mood in a few scenes without going over the top and disrupting the flow of the film.  Sonny's new assistant, Rick (Griffin Newman), brings just the right amount of well placed chuckles throughout.

The editing was also done in an interesting way.  There are many phone calls throughout the film, so it cuts to split screen quite often.  They didn't just keep it static though.  If someone were walking across the room, they would walk out of their frame, in front of the other person, and on to the other side of the screen where it would be split again.  It was a little different, but it worked well enough for me for the purpose it served.

This is a solid film.  I'm a sucker for a good Kevin Costner sports movie.  I can't say it is going to wow anyone, however, that being said, I can't point out too many inherent flaws in my opinion.  It's got a real solid cast and even if it is an exaggerated Hollywood version of what goes on behind the scenes at draft day, it's still an interesting peek behind the curtain.  Also, there is a lot of draft lingo thrown out there with the trades and the rounds and everything, but don't be intimidated.  I don't know the first thing about behind the scenes football, and they still made it easy enough to follow it.  If you're a fan of Costner or football or both check out this movie.

Rating: *******--- (7 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:

Sonny: Give me five minutes, then you can fire me.