Instant Family

First Hit: This was a very funny, touching, and poignant film about foster care and love.

Based partially on a true story, Pete and Ellie Wagner (Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne respectively) are enjoying a wonderful life together. They have built a successful business of flipping homes together. However, when they visit her family during one of the holidays, the family gets into a heated, yet hilarious discussion about kids.

They attend a Foster kid information meeting, which is hilarious, that is led by Sharon (Tig Notaro) and Karen (Octavia Spencer). As they learn more about the foster children and their needs, the more they are touched and consider adopting.

They select an older girl Lizzy (Isabela Moner) who has two younger siblings Juan and Lita (Gustavo Quiroz and Juliana Gamiz respectively). after learning that they will have to take all three the first week or so, starts off fairly well and when Pete and Ellie go to their foster support group they think, they’re “pretty good at this.” But then it happens, Pete and Ellie are faced with the difficulties, resentment, and behavior issues that foster care children can bring to the table through no fault of their own.

Watching Pete and Ellie, learn to fall in love with the kids was very well done. It was a subtly evolved piercing their outward bravado.

The scenes, although obvious in nature, allowed the actors to grow into the family dynamic and situation with both comedic and heartbreaking outcomes. When the biological mother comes back into their life, it was obvious that Lizzy hoped it would work, but the pressure overcame the mother —again. When Pete and Ellie meet with their support group, the comradery of people facing like and different difficulties with their foster children was both amusing while containing some real life challenges.

The quick quips between Sharon and Karen were extremely well timed and appropriately funny.

Wahlberg was strong as the charged up wanna be dad, fixer, and solver of problems. Although he can come off as pressing the character at times, in the end, he was perfect. Byrne was excellent. I loved her movement from reluctance to strong advocate. She showed sensitivity, warmth and strength. Moner was brilliant as the teenage girl that had been thrust into a parenting role and then had to let go and become a teenage girl learning how to grow up. The two scenes with the hairbrush were perfect: First sensitive, touched; followed by resentment and hurt. Quiroz and Gamiz were wonderful as Moner’s younger siblings. Quiroz showed a wonderful sensitive side, while Gamiz was both sweet and strong-willed. Spencer was fantastic and very funny as one of the foster case women. Notaro was equally wonderful and funny as Spencer’s straight woman and co-case worker. As a team they were perfect for this story. Julie Haggerty as Jan, Ellie’s mother, was wonderfully naïve, yet insightful. Margo Martindale was perfect as Pete’s overbearing, loud, and strong willed mother whose insights to raising children were helpful. Sean Anders and John Morris wrote a funny screenplay that made use of real-life experience. Anders did a good job of making this film work. His actual experience with foster care and adoption was apparent.

Overall: This film worked because the story had a ring of truth and the actors embraced their characters.

The Meddler

First Hit:  The film had funny bits and it was Susan Sarandon’s performance that held it together.

When the film opens, Marnie (Sarandon) has been a widow for over a year. Her husband left her with enough money that she doesn’t have to worry about any financial matters and she's not dealt with her husbands ashes yet. She's moved out to Los Angeles to be near her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) who has just broken up with her boyfriend Jacob (Jason Ritter).

Lori is devastated by the breakup and therein-lies one of the downfalls of this film, we really don’t know why. And even in the short scenes those two have together, there are no clues.

Because we know nothing of their relationship, we  are expected to believe that the depressed malaise Lori carries around is valid. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy it. This could be the issue of the screenplay, director, or actor.

With her daughter being depressed, Marnie is ready, willing and able to meddle in her daughter's life. She calls Lori at least 15 times a day and leaves long meandering messages, tries to tell her daughter what to do with her life, and shows up at her house unannounced. She smothers her daughter and appears clueless that she is acting this way.

When Lori heads to New York for work, Marnie suggests going with her. Lori says no, so Marnie starts to meddle in Lori’s friends lives. The difference is that they like it, although some of the attraction is that she has money and seems willing to spend it on them, including a wedding for a lesbian couple.

She also transports her Apple Genius Bar helper Freddy/Fredo (Jerrod Carmichael) to his school classes. All the things she does are for other people, and it's clear she’s not facing her own deep sorrow. She happens to meet Zipper (J.K. Simmons) who is a retired police officer and his accepting kind nature helps her begin to see a next step, which means moving along with her life.

Sarandon is very strong and effective as the meddling Marnie. Sarandon gives Marnie a strength of character and disarming charm that works well in this film. Byrne is OK, however I never bought her devastation from breaking up with Jacob. It seemed more like she was acting as a character versus playing and embodying the situational circumstance of the character. Carmichael was very good as the Apple Genius Bar guy who wants to improve his life. Simmons seemed to channel his best Sam Elliot with the mustache, deep voice and calm demeanor. Not that it was bad, but it just seemed like Elliot could have been substituted with little difference. Lorene Scafaria wrote and directed this film and it would seem she has had some experience with a “meddler” in her own life.

Overall:  Despite some of the film's faults, it was entertaining and at times very funny.

This Is Where I Leave You

First Hit:  Moments of brilliance with moments of negating over the top behavior.

The Altman  family gathers together because the father has died. Hillary (Jane Fonda) is the widow and her 4 children come to pay their respects to their father. She states that their father wanted the children to sit 7 days of Shiva. Reluctantly the children sit in chairs that are too low to the floor and begin the process of relating to each other again.

This could have been a more powerful story with comedy woven in, however the behavior of the adult children, especially youngest son Phillip (Adam Driver), turned me off to what could have been a more compelling story. Scenes where he turns up the baby monitor, in front of all the guests, to hear his brother and sister-in-law have sex at their father’s Shiva was tasteless.

Yes, it was supposed to be funny but it came off as insensitive. Then there were the physical fight scenes – where the brothers were in fisticuffs with each other over petty stuff – just seemed to be more than needed. However, there were also great touching scenes of both the comedic and sensitive nature.

Sister Wendy (Tina Fey) hitting her brother Judd’s (Jason Bateman) former boss Wade (Dax Shepard) because he slept with Judd’s wife was priceless. Just as was the scene of the brothers smoking the pot left in their father’s jacket while in a classroom at the Jewish temple – very funny, revealing and a true family and brotherly like moment.

Bateman was effective as the guy who has lived a very controlled precise predictable life and has had it turned upside down. His character change to someone that is willing to add a bit of complication in his life was very good. Fey was adorable as the sister among 3 very different brothers. She held her own both based on the role as well as her acting strength. Corey Stoll (as oldest brother Paul) was very good. He definitely had the older responsible, stay with the family business attitude down. Driver was good, but I didn’t like the script for him. It made him seem both dumb and ridiculous and he was really neither. Rose Byrne (Penny Moore) as Bateman’s old childhood friend was fantastic. I would have liked more of her in the film. Fonda was a hit. She really had me each time she was on the screen. I’ve loved her since the 1960’s (Cat Ballou – 1965 – where I first enjoyed her dramatic and comedic turns). Shepard was strong as the affected self-absorbed Disc Jockey. Jonathan Tropper wrote an occasionally strong and often misguided script. Shawn Levy didn’t seem to have a really clear direction as to what he wanted: Drama with great laughs or a comedy with some high-school like behavior out of adults while dealing with a serious subject.

Overall:  This film had glimpses and the possibility of being much better than it ended up being.

I Give It a Year

First Hit:  Laugh out loud funny in moments and a little overdone and mishandled in others.

Maybe there is a trend these days to portray therapists as dolts and in need of more therapy than their own clients, and this film does it as well.

The first few scenes with the therapist and then at wedding reception telegraph the ending a bit more than I liked. Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) have a torrid 7 months together and marry. Was this too early? That is the question the film attempts to answer.

Their friends and family “give it a year”. That their minister gags, coughs, and cannot get our “I now pronounce you man and wife”, also is a dead giveaway to the film's ending. Danny (Stephen Merchant) is one of Josh’s friends and his monologue scenes (wedding toast and during dinner conversations) are horribly distasteful and made me cringe.

That anyone would tolerate anyone with such poor taste and not be guided to alter their behavior was unreflective of any truth.

On the plus side, many of the scenes with Nat and Alec (Terence Harvey) were great and funny while scenes with Josh and Diana (Jane Asher) were touching and reflective.

Byrne is both beautiful and effective as a reserve, active, interesting, and a successful woman who is flustered by Alec from the moment they meet. Spall is strong as the husband who lives by the beat of a different drum from his wife. He isn’t very active, has an odd sense of humor, and is less sophisticated than his wife. Merchant is great at being a total disgusting jerk but I thought his character was really unnecessary in this film. Harvey is perfect as the guy who steals Nat’s heart. Asher is very good as the somewhat shy idealist who wants Josh to fight for her. Minnie Driver plays a friend of theirs and her scenes are wonderfully effective. It was good to see her again. Dan Mazer wrote and directed this. Some of the comedy was gross and ineffective but other aspects of the film were good and spot on.

Overall:  Although uneven, there are good lines and qualities in this film. However it is better suited to watching On Demand.

The Internship

First Hit:  Moderately funny scenes and the real truth is the difficult story about finding jobs for anyone at any age.

When John Goodman fires Billy (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Owen Wilson) from their sales jobs and then tells them that they were sales “grinders”, were facing a cruel world out there, and that their prospects were minimal the film's set-up is made.

There is another segment where one of Team Lyle's members' states that more than half of today’s college graduates will not get a job that uses their education when they graduate. I’ve been on the job market as a 30, 40, and 50 year old person and I know just how hard it is. The older you get the harder it is, especially in a technology world. When 100 kids show up to Google for a summer internship in the hopes of 6 of them securing jobs at Google, it tells a huge story.

The story is about how two old salespeople use their skills at bringing people together so that the team can win. They learn who has what skills and how to support each other and help them grow. The downside, as I’ve stated before in other reviews, Vaughn is Vaughn no matter what role he takes. He’s got one character and it just shows up in different films so this film becomes predictable very early on.

Wilson, like Vaughn, plays the same character in most of his roles, although he can be more subtle in his acting. With these two as the main stars, the film lacks surprises and, for the most part, does not reveal its characters in interesting ways. If the film focused more on the second level actors it may have been more interesting. Regardless, there are funny, sad, and heartfelt moments which make it watchable.

Vaughn is just that, Vince Vaughn, no more or less. Wilson is the same thing, no surprises, and a knowable character. Nothing very interesting about these people or their characters. Rose Byrne (playing Diana) was OK in a minimal role. Aasif Mandvi (playing Mr. Chetty) was OK and a bit stereotypical. Max Minghella (playing a jerk named Graham) was good and showed the kind of arrogance this role called for. Josh Brenner (playing Lyle) was believable as a computer nerd – which he does on some movie theater promos. Dylan O’Brien as Stuart was good as the always negative to be cool guy. Tiya Sicar (as Neha, the only female on this team) was really good and deserved more script time. Tobit Raphael (as Yo Yo Santos) was wonderful as the oppressed by his strong mom nerd. He portrayed the fear and his change to finding his voice, sort of speak, perfectly. Vaughn and Jared Stern wrote this occasionally funny and adequate script but I do think there was more available for this film. Shawn Levy directed this film. There were nice moments and staging but other times it felt pressed and too made up.

Overall:  A “On Demand” film for sure and enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon or evening.