[Movie Review] Men, Women & Children (2014)
Director: Jason Reitman
Writers: Jason Reitman, Erin Cressida Wilson
Runtime: 119 min
Main Cast:
- Adam Sandler as Don Truby
- Jennifer Garner as Patricia Belt
- Rosemarie DeWitt as Helen Truby
- Judy Greer as Donna Clint
- Dean Norris as Kent Moone
- Emma Thompson as Narrator (voice)
- Ansel Elgort as Tim Mooney
Review: by The Superior Spider-Sam
I actually saw the trailer for this movie very recently, and, after watching it, I knew two things. One, Jennifer Garner would play a very over protective mother, and, two, Judy Greer was either a very creepy photographer or a horrible mother. So, going in, I knew not too much, which I see as a good thing; and, the IMDB description, while accurate, only barely scratches the surface of what goes in this film. For better or for worse, this film is like a rated R extended episode of the teen Drama Degrassi-- it goes there.
What I Liked:
This movie told the stories of many different teenagers and their parents, who were all interconnected through the high school the teens attended. Different sets of these characters had isolated stories, each dealing with real world issues.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing (most of) the characters in this film (not so much the plot of events) and how each responded to the situations they found themselves in. Whether it was Allison (Elena Kampouris) dealing with her issues of anorexia, literally starving herself to gain the attentions of a boy, Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) looking for a way to escape her over bearing mother (Jennifer Garner), or even The Trubys (Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt) who were each looking for some way to light the flare their marriage had lost, each story did very well to deliver its own comedy, drama, and sadness. I think it’s pretty cool that after seeing this film you saw a beginning, middle and end to several different stories rather than just one.
I also must point out Adam Sandler and Jennifer Garner.
Adam Sandler has not made a movie I have genuinely enjoyed seeing him in since The Waterboy (I actually walked out on You Don’t Mess with the Zohan), but I must admit I really liked him in this. I must have taken his actual acting for granted because I was pleasantly surprised to see how he went from the” funny man” that I typically expect in the hilarious opening scene, where he snuck into his son’s room in order to masturbate, into the man who had his feelings shattered when he discovered his wife was seeing other men. I believed what he was feeling, and he was one of the more enjoyable characters; so, he deserves a shout out.
However, the star of the film, as seen in the trailer, was Jennifer Garner. She portrayed the controlling mother of Brandy to perfection. She was so good, in fact, that I think an alien who had never witnessed human behavior would believe she was the prototypical mother. She would read Brandy’s emails, track her cell phone, check her Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts, print out and comb through instant message chats looking for clues, and even monitor the keystrokes on Brady’s keyboard to review what words she had typed. She was OC, but what got me were her facial transitions. The love on her face when she said “It’s all to protect you honey,” the disgust on her face when she spoke of video games like Guild Wars, and the anger she displayed when she discovers Brandy’s been less than truthful were all superb. She honestly believed she was being the best mother she could be.
Dean Norris’ Kent Mooney also had a sad but relatable story involving his wife leaving him and his son (Ansel Elgort) that was decent.
What I Didn’t Like:
The things that I didn’t like are mostly personal grievances and don’t really have to do with the actors themselves.
Firstly, there is nudity in this movie — a lot of it — which isn’t necessarily a problem, but it seriously catches you off guard to see a budding romance between school mates cut to a behind the shoulder scene of someone is watching porn on a laptop or Don Truby sleeping with a prostitute.
Secondly, to build off of that, this movie had some serious issues that certainly exist in the real world but were still a bit off putting. Allison went on an extreme starvation diet all to impress the resident jerk in her high school. Seeing the lengths she went to and the ultimate result was disconcerting.
However, that paled in comparison to Judy Greer and Olivia Crocicchia’s characters (Joan and Hannah Clint respectively). Joan Clint was a horrible mother who took racy photos of her teenage daughter and sold them online. That was bad, but what’s worse was Hannah Clint’s obsession with it all. She loved it. When she wasn’t posing for her “fans,” she was a cheerleader bragging about sleeping with older guys and swallowing their jizz, which was a disturbing lie. All the while, she’s trying to manipulate a guy into sleeping with her, so she could substantiate her slut status and actually lose her V-card.
I get this movie is not meant for impressionable young girls who would see it and think they need to act this way to be accepted. I am also aware that, sad as it is, this is actually happening in the world today; but, still, she was 16 and super slutty, and it didn’t sit well with me.
Thirdly, Brandy Beltmeyer and Tim Mooney (Dever and Elgort) had a budding romance in the film that definitely hit the “sad/depressing” mark but ultimately felt unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Above I said I liked “most” of the stories told. Well, this was the one I did not like. Their story did not feel as developed as the others. It seemed that progression in the relationship was skipped so that whenever the film cut back to them, they were closer than when we had last seen them. It got in the way of the rest of the stories told and made the movie unnecessarily long. Also, the story of these two together was not as interesting as their own separate stories with their parents.
Lastly, just a couple things I have to call BS on:
- Tim Mooney was playing Guild Wars on his 2011 Lenovo laptop, and it loaded up faster than my PS4. Yeah, right!
- Helen Truby used a family computer in the living room to create an Ashley Madison account (website for cheating spouses), and left the window open with her profile up. Yeah, right!
- When talking to his counselor, Tim Mooney mentioned Guild Wars, to which the counselor said “Is that a Nintendo game?” He KNEW the NES ain’t been around for over 20 years! Yeah, right!
Summary
I believed Men, Women & Children to be like a much more explicit and extended episode of Degrassi, which is a compliment in my case because Degrassi (the Next Generation to be specific) ruled the world (at least my world) in my teen years. This film told several different stories about teenagers, parents, and the problems they face in today’s world. It is definitely worth a watch, and remember — Judy Greer is a horrible mother.
User Review
( votes)Images Courtesy of IMDB
