It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a new movie where all the boxes have been ticked. Good script, tick: great actors: tick, funny: tick, sad: tick, dramatic: tick, well-shot: tick, good-but-un-naff-ending: tick. The kids are all right, as you may have gathered, gets a tick from me.
The strengths of the movie are many, top-most of the list is writers Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg’s ability to take what could be cliches and make them real, loveable, fallible, beautiful characters. Whether it be the wife and wife couple and their children at the centre of the story, or the sperm donor who meets ‘his’ children later in life, their context is just a small part of the nuanced individual characters created.
The script alone is funny. Very very funny. And sad (I cried, but I cry at toilet paper commercials if there’s enough puppies, so adjust your crydar). A fabulous insight into marriage, allowing kidlets to leave the nest and a singleton’s desire for a nest of his own.
My movie of the year so far.
I give it a bar of chocolate, a catch up with your bestie, a box of tissues and a hug.
