Review of Instructions Not Included (2013) by Eli_De101 — 08 Mar 2014

. “Instructions not included” has become one of my favorite movies by just watching it once. It’s a great family movie about a Mexican single father raising his American daughter that was abandon by her mother in Mexico. The movie will make you laugh hysterically, cry, and think. Watching this movie with my family was a really nice because everyone enjoyed the movie just as much as I did.

The movie starts out in Acapulco Mexico where a young single bachelor is surprised at the door by one of his American flings. She showed up at the door with a baby girl in her arms saying that it was their love child. While he was trying to take it all in she asked for money to go pay the taxi and never came back. He tried to go look for her and saw her board a plane to the U.S. So then he went and hitch hiked all the way to L.A with the baby to go find her mom. He went to look for her at a hotel where babies weren’t allowed and he left the baby down stairs. He went looking in a suit where a movie director was having auditions for a stunt man. When he barged in the room he saw the baby about to fall in the pool and jumped from the balcony to save her. The director offered him a job and told him he would get the baby taken away if he tried to take her back to Mexico. So he decided to take the job as a stunt man and start a new life for himself and his daughter.

He was an excellent dad he gave his daughter everything she wanted. He struggled being a single dad but he made it all work out in his own creative ways. The two were like two peas in a pod nothing could keep them apart. The dad had doctor appointments and was always nervous to go to and so his daughter would always go with him. She would even take shots with her dad so he wouldn’t be scared. He seemed to be very worried since the doctor told him that the treatment they had tried hadn’t worked. Soon after that the long lost mother came around asking to see her daughter. When she came to see her she couldn’t get enough of the daughter she had once abandon. She then took the dad to court to fight for full custody so she could take her with her to New York. The dad won the full custody and the mom couldn’t believe it. She then asked to get a DNA test to check her daughter’s paternity and it showed that he wasn’t her real dad. The daughter and dad then walked all the way back to Acapulco where their journey first started. When the mom went to go look for them the dad’s boss told him that she had to find out what was really going on and she had to go look for them in Acapulco. She got there and found them playing in the beach. They were a happy family for about two weeks. One day on the beach when they were looking at the sunset the little girl fell asleep and never woke up. She had a rare disease that made her fall asleep almost instantly and one day she wouldn’t wake up from it. On her last days she was the happiest and had all she wanted and that was being by her parent’s side happily ever after.

This movie really touched me just because you never know what can happen. After all the things the dad did for his little girl he was about to lose her in a blink of an eye. Nothing could stop him from being by his daughter and so he just walked away with her and was ready to start all over in another country. The love of a father is so big and sometimes it can be unappreciated as you grow up and that really made me think about my dad. A father’s love can never be out grown or replaced. This movie has me that things can happen unexpectedly and you have to figure out how to overcome it on your own. It will have you laughing from the beginning and through the entire move and in a second it will have your eyes watery. The title “Instructions not included” tells you that in life things can be thrown at you at any time and you have to figure out a solution on your own. The chemistry between the father and his daughter is so powerful and seems so real. It’s an excellent family movie with a great message. The overall story and how the plot all falls together just made it impossible to not watch. I recommend this movie to everyone and especially for a family night.