MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN review by Ronnie Malik

MEN, WOMEN & CHILDREN review by Ronnie Malik

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Director: Jason Reitman

Cast: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Emma Thompson, Timothee Chalamet, Olivia Crocicchia, Kaitlyn Dever, Anel Elgort, Katherine G. Hughes, Elena Kampouris, J.K. Simmons, Dennis Haysbert, Travis Tope

Rating: C+

Many will remember the days when Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and any other internet social portals did not exist. If you wanted to talk to someone you picked up a phone and just called. If you wanted to share a photo with someone you just showed off a photo album. If you needed answers to something you just used the yellow pages or an encyclopedia. Fast forward to present day and we find an information overload through the internet via phones or computers. Anything you want is just a click away. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film Men, Women & Children leaves us pondering the question – Is social media a blessing or a curse?

The story follows a group of teens along with their families in a small Texas town and how the internet and social media are like a plague, infecting unsuspecting victims that are enthralled with the allure of being sucked into a virtual world. Just about every character in the film has some quirk or idiosyncrasy that is satisfied by staying glued to texting or various online websites.

High school football hero Tim (Ansel Elgort) quits sports after his parent’s divorce and is obsessed with Guild Wars’ gaming site that ultimately isolates him from his father and the life of a normal teenager. Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever), desperately trying to be a normal adolescent girl, finds the need to create a dominatrix avatar of herself because she can’t escape her mother who constantly polices her emails, texts, and web browser. Chris (Travis Tope) is a 15-year-old whose obsession with porn keeps him locked away in his room. Allison (Elena Kampouris), an adorable little cheerleader, is pursuing every crazy diet in the world to keep thin. She uses an online chat group supporting anorexia to keep her company while she bides for the attention of a boy who cares nothing about her. Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia), an underage starlet wannabe, gets narcissistic pleasure out of posting racy pictures of herself on her very own website.

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Peculiarity is not the just a privilege for those under 18 in this film. The parents have plenty of weird interests of their own. Patricia (Jennifer Garner), an overly zealous self-righteous mother, attempting to protect her daughter Brandy from internet predators, only succeeds in pushing her child over the edge. Chris’ parents, Don (Adam Sandler) and Helen (Rosemarie Dewitt), are a bored with their marriage and both resort to internet dating sites to spruce up their sex lives with perfect strangers. To top it off Don thinks nothing of his son’s obsession with porn and is more intrigued by what he finds on his son’s computer than horrified.

Donna (Judy Greer), Hannah’s mother, manages to justify charging people to view all the naughty photos of her young daughter. Kent (Dean Norris) is more focused on getting his son, Tim, back into football than what is troubling the young man. Allison’s parents brush her addiction to weight loss under the rug and spend more time wondering how their sweet baby girl wound up having sex without their knowledge.

Men, Women & Children is a melodrama attempting to deal with the questions of what social media is doing to our lives. The problem with this film is that it over dramatizes the ill effects of social media. Porn, extramarital affairs and troubled teenagers have actually been around a lot longer than the internet. The internet is simply another way for some troubled souls to find solace in whatever fetishes strike their fancy. This movie felt more like propaganda against social media with a loud siren going off warning that, heaven forbid, you could get brainwashed by staring at a text or computer for too long. Many of the characters are portrayed one dimensional and very stereotypical with no real layers or depth to the personalities. Another thing that seemed a little absurd is that British actress Emma Thompson is narrating a film that is about inhabitants of an America town in a very English accent. This little touch just did not fit and made the film feel ridiculous and silly at times.

Initially the production starts off very slow and almost puts you to sleep but some (not all) of the storylines are engaging enough that audiences will get sucked in to see what happens to this group of computer junkies. Had the filmmakers developed one or two storylines and gone into more detail about the intricacies of the inner relationships within the families, this would have been a much stronger movie. There were just too many stories touched on and not enough time to fully develop any of them.

The one saving grace for the film is the cast. Each actor manages to pull off emotional conflicts of their characters coming to terms with how they are destroying their lives through online obsessions. But strong actors alone are not always enough to hold a film together if the script is weak.

Men, Women & Children does have a certain intensity to it and will make you mull over questions about how the internet age is affecting how we communicate and relate to others. Once the movie is over many will probably just hit the delete button and go on with looking at the world through the eyes of social media.

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