Review of Men, Women & Children (2014) by Patrick L — 19 Aug 2015

"Director Jason Reitman has scored two clunky movies in a row".

DVD Movie Review: Men, Women & Children.

Date Viewed: December 26 2014.

Directed By Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air, Labor Day and Thank You For Smoking).

Screenplay By Jason Reitman and Erin Cressida Wilson, Based on the novel by Chad Kultgen.

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Rosemarie DeWitt,.

Adam Sandler, Dean Norris, Ansel Elgort, Judy Greer, Kaitlyn Dever, J.K. Simmons, David Denman, Dennis Haysbert and Emma Thompson as the narrator.

What has happened to Jason Reitman? When he made "Up in the Air", I thought he was going to do more great work. I was wrong. With "Labor Day" and his new film "Men, Women & Children", he has managed to make two clunky movies in a row. "Men, Women & Children" has a overbearing narrative and it's themes are old and tired. Despite the fact it has Adam Sandler giving one of his better performances, "Men, Women & Children" is another letdown for the once exciting Jason Reitman.

This movie is about how social media and the internet are destroying people's lives. Just like Paul Haggis' "Third Person" (which I saw just last night), it has multiple storylines involving people who are depressed with their lives. Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt play a middle-aged couple who are unsatisfied with their marriage. Don Truby (Sandler) spends most of his time looking at porn while his wife and kids are away. So he finds an escort service and has an affair with a younger woman. Meanwhile, his wife, Helen (DeWitt) goes on the Ashley Madison website and seeks an extra-marital affair with a black man named Secretluvur (Dennis Haysbert). Wait a minute Dennis, you played this character before in "Think Like a Man Too".

We also have Ansel Elgort (from "The Fault in Our Stars") as a former football star who now spends most of his time playing multiplayer online games on his computer. Elgort's father played by Dean Norris (from "Breaking Bad") wants him to stop playing those stupid games and rejoin the football team. Elgort's character also begins a relationship with Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) who is being constantly tracked 24/7 by her over-protective mother, Patricia (Jennifer Garner). Brandy's mom checks everything on her daughter's Facebook page and every text on her mobile phone because she wants to protect her from online predators.

Reitman's downward spiral is a complete mystery to me. Several years ago, he was on the top of his form. He did a scathing indictment on the tobacco industry with "Thank You For Smoking", he made a thoughtful movie about teen-pregnancy with "Juno" and he did brilliant philosophy on the American economy with "Up in the Air". 5 years later, his career is in freefall. Earlier this year, he did a Nicholas Sparks wannabe called "Labor Day" and now he has made movie that is just a right-wing attack on social media and the internet.

"Men, Women & Children" is much better than "Labor Day" but that still isn't saying much. Reitman tried to make an important movie but it is surrounded by bad narration from Emma Thompson and flat teen melodrama. The actors are all fine but this movie has nothing meaningful to say about the dangers of social media or daily life.