Movie Breakdown: Men, Women & Children
People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different. In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing led us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all. Read on!
The Impression:
Jason Reitman takes a look at a few of the ways the internet has altered people’s lives.
The Reality:
At some point the internet touched Jason Reitman inappropriately, and now he’s made Men, Women & Children in an effort to strike back. Unfortunately though, his incredibly bleak film doesn’t do much but emphatically point out that people are inherently bad and the internet is everyone’s preferred tool of moral destruction. Well no shit, right? In any case, while it’s not remotely insightful or interesting, Men, Women & Children is actually not an outright awful film. Adam Sandler, Dean Norris, Judy Greer, Kaitlyn Dever and most of the rest of the cast turn in nice performances, and I think some of movie’s quirkier elements (various points of narration by Emma Thompson, on-screen text messages) are well done. It’s just too bad that there’s not enough of a meaningful message around the noteworthy parts for any of them to really matter.
One day when Men, Women & Children is on HBO and the remote has slid into the couch and you don’t feel like digging it out, maybe watch it.
The Lesson:
Where’s the guy who directed Juno and Up In The Air?
