I’m going to have to break ranks here. I saw it a few weeks ago, and, despite the fantastic cast (I’m with you on Toni Collette, mhendo), I was completely underwhelmed.
Spoilers:
[spoiler]The film felt like someone had sat down to adhere as closely as possible to an emerging genre of “fun family dysfunction.” Every character in the picture was a tried-and-true cliche of “quirky” movies: the sullen high-schooler (are we really supposed to believe that a kid with a gigantic portrait of Nietzche on his wall plans to join the Air Force?); the profane but good-hearted grandpa; the hyper-positive go-getter Dad who’s actually a failure; the depressed, anomic academic; etc.
More than that, though, there was a weird disconnect between the characters and the plot. We’re supposed at times to take these characters seriously in their pathos: Steve Carell’s being just off a suicide attempt, the sullen brother’s awful realization that he’s colorblind, dad’s shame and near-panic after the meeting with his “publisher.” So far so good.
At the same time, though, we’re supposed to accept that these characters, whom we presumably care about as actual human beings, are going to steal grandpa’s dead body out the hospital window? Granted, that’s a funny scene, but we have to jump up to a far more detached level of appreciation for that kind of schtick to work. The film kept see-sawing on how deeply involved with the characters we are.
Basically, there are a lot of scenes that attempt to set the cast up as real, believable individuals, and then there are a lot of scenes that casually throw that trust away in the service of cheap and easy gags. Arkin’s character, for example, was funny with his profane mouth and loud opinions, but I didn’t believe for a moment that he was a heroin junkie.
The beauty pageant for little girls is ripe comic ground, but (a) it’s a satire-target that’s been done over and over, and (b) again, I simply didn’t believe that these characters would jump up on stage and steal the show that way.
There’s a common notion in bad movies that love and a roadtrip is all it takes to cure someone of neurosis. The high-school brother has his little fit of angst, but then a conversation with Steve Carell helps him feel again, and presto, this until-recently anxiety-riddled kid realizes his love for his family, breaks out of his shell, learns to live a little, wakes up and smells the coffee, and all that stuff. I just couldn’t buy it.
As others have stated, the cast was uniformly terrific. But the writing was as lame as a “Facts of Life” episode.
No offense to those who liked it; but it felt contrived and unconvincing to me.[/spoiler]
.)