

Title:Men, Women, and Children

MPAA Rating:R

Director:Jason Reitman

Starring:Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, Emma Thompson

Runtime:1 hr 59 mins



What It Is: Here we have seperate stories of different teens and adults all going through the tepid motions of suburbia. Whether it’s Helen and Don Truby (played excellently by Rosemary Dewitt and Adam Sandler) suffering through a marriage that’s lost it’s spark or dealing with the angst teenagers have to get through like divorce and invasion of privacy. These are a few things that negatively effect our “lead” characters Brandy and Tim (Played by Dever and Elgort) among the other things touched on are loneliness, eating disorders, teenaged ennui, and isolation. It hits all of the tropes life throws our way. Whether we like it or not life is going to hit us in the mouth, this seeks to prove it’s our job to hit it back!

What We Think: I’ve read a lot about this film and other’s accounts of it, and while they’re entitled to those opinion I feel as though they’re from the wrong prespective. Here’s the skinny on what people are saying, others have projected that the films message is too heavy handed. I grossly disagree. I found the film poignant, relevant, and real. Do I buy all the film has to say? No, by no means but I fully believe that theirs some accuracy to the points being made. I won’t say it doesn’t make it’s intentions clear because it does, but I don’t think that it’s at a clip that’s detremental to the overall plot of the story. The acting is good, but not great although I’d like to praise Adam Sandler for his understated portrayal here. Some of the younger actors are hit and miss especially Elena Kampouris, whose story should make us feel more, but instead is just somewhat uninteresting and bland.

Our Grade: B-, I enjoyed this more then most people, but in the end it is a flawed piece and the normally narratively tight Reitman let’s this get a bit out of hand. Structurally there’s a problem with the script and the dialogue itself isn’t great. Of course Reitman normally has scripts like “Juno” to work with. Here he just seems lost in the weight of it all, even still I enjoyed the film and it’s risk taking honest approach, regardless of other opinions.