Instant Family - Review
Director: Sean Anders
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Margo Martindale, Julie Hagerty, Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro
From the same team that brought you Daddy's Home and its sequel Daddy's Home 2 comes Instant Family; the themes of dysfunctional families and the hazards of parenting run through all of Anders' aforementioned work but Instant Family draws from the director's own experiences of fostering children in this cloying and comedic flick.
Married couple Pete (Wahlberg) and Ellie (Byrne) Wagner start to consider adopting a child, prompted by snide comments made by Ellie's family. After attending an adoption fair, they find themselves taken with headstrong teenager Lizzie (Moner) and choose to foster her and her two younger siblings, changing the couple's lives in all of the best and most chaotic ways.
Having found success in home renovation and cultivated a comfortable lifestyle, Pete and Ellie are inspired by the realms of children on an adoption website in need of a loving home. They undergo a rigorous foster caregiving course where they meet a host of other budding foster parents including a single woman named October with hopes of adopting a black child and nurturing him into a football superstar a la The Blind Side. These supporting players, along with social workers Karen (Spencer) and Sharon (Notaro), provide the couple with emotional support and additional comedic value.
Pete and Ellie initially adjust well to their new lives as parents of three but things soon start to go awry and the couple are tested to their limits with Lizzie, Juan and Lita's troublesome behaviour. Lizzie is defiant and openly hostile, particularly toward Ellie, Juan is of a nervous disposition and seems to lack any common sense while Lita is fussy and quick to fly into a temper. With the true hardships of fostering unveiled to them, Pete and Ellie question whether they have made the right decision.
These concerns and consequent chaos often clumsily blend drama and comedy and certain moments of levity are poorly constructed and become repetitive (Juan getting accidentally hit in the face with a ball at the hands of Pete can only produce so many laughs). However, the actors give their all and Byrne is reliably impressive; out of the two, Ellie has the greatest struggle and most tumultuous relationship with the three kids and Byrne must flip between broad humour and sympathetic strife at the drop of a hat. Given her previous credits in work such as Bad Neighbours and Damages, Byrne's ability to manoeuvre both qualities is unsurprising. But it's Isabela Moner as troubled teen Lizzie who gives the standout performance; she's feisty and vulnerable, tender but tough and a mass of other contradictions that Moner effortlessly brings to fruition.
While Instant Family can't move away from its formulaic roots, its earnest intentions laced with genuinely moving and charming moments manage to overcome the film's predictabilities.
EB
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Margo Martindale, Julie Hagerty, Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro
From the same team that brought you Daddy's Home and its sequel Daddy's Home 2 comes Instant Family; the themes of dysfunctional families and the hazards of parenting run through all of Anders' aforementioned work but Instant Family draws from the director's own experiences of fostering children in this cloying and comedic flick.
Married couple Pete (Wahlberg) and Ellie (Byrne) Wagner start to consider adopting a child, prompted by snide comments made by Ellie's family. After attending an adoption fair, they find themselves taken with headstrong teenager Lizzie (Moner) and choose to foster her and her two younger siblings, changing the couple's lives in all of the best and most chaotic ways.
Having found success in home renovation and cultivated a comfortable lifestyle, Pete and Ellie are inspired by the realms of children on an adoption website in need of a loving home. They undergo a rigorous foster caregiving course where they meet a host of other budding foster parents including a single woman named October with hopes of adopting a black child and nurturing him into a football superstar a la The Blind Side. These supporting players, along with social workers Karen (Spencer) and Sharon (Notaro), provide the couple with emotional support and additional comedic value.
Pete and Ellie initially adjust well to their new lives as parents of three but things soon start to go awry and the couple are tested to their limits with Lizzie, Juan and Lita's troublesome behaviour. Lizzie is defiant and openly hostile, particularly toward Ellie, Juan is of a nervous disposition and seems to lack any common sense while Lita is fussy and quick to fly into a temper. With the true hardships of fostering unveiled to them, Pete and Ellie question whether they have made the right decision.
These concerns and consequent chaos often clumsily blend drama and comedy and certain moments of levity are poorly constructed and become repetitive (Juan getting accidentally hit in the face with a ball at the hands of Pete can only produce so many laughs). However, the actors give their all and Byrne is reliably impressive; out of the two, Ellie has the greatest struggle and most tumultuous relationship with the three kids and Byrne must flip between broad humour and sympathetic strife at the drop of a hat. Given her previous credits in work such as Bad Neighbours and Damages, Byrne's ability to manoeuvre both qualities is unsurprising. But it's Isabela Moner as troubled teen Lizzie who gives the standout performance; she's feisty and vulnerable, tender but tough and a mass of other contradictions that Moner effortlessly brings to fruition.
While Instant Family can't move away from its formulaic roots, its earnest intentions laced with genuinely moving and charming moments manage to overcome the film's predictabilities.
EB
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