Review of Men, Women & Children (2014) by Stephanie G — 19 Apr 2015

Not every well-intentioned, well-acted drama manages to make a splash and Men, Women, and Children is an unfortunate example of this. Based on a Chad Kultgen novel I have not read, it concerns teenagers and their parents falling into sexual immorality and disaster as technology becomes their primary form of communication. The narration by Emma Thompson is exquisite, along with the intercutting of Voyager drifting out of our Solar System, which is there because...reasons. Adam Sandler acts his ass off here and I look forward to the day I see him leave the low-brow comedy rut he's found himself in these last few years. Honorable mentions are in order for Elena Kampouris, Dean Norris, and Ansel Elgort. But truth be told, both Jennifer Gardner's and Will Peltz's characters should have been taken out in the back and shot. (Let's just leave it at that.).

Men, Women, and Children has been treated rather unceremoniously for a fall season drama, and that may lie in the fact that its message leans a bit on the puritanical side, which might not sit right with today's admittedly permissive yet awkwardly self-conscious sexual culture. As I like to say, it's about as subtle as a flying brick, on fire, smashing through your windshield. Upon picking it up, you may find a message attached that reads THE CASUAL WAY THAT YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN USE SEX AND THE INTERNET IS LEADING TO SOCIETAL MORAL RUIN. Now that argument lies perilously close to a slippery slope, and I have no intention of evaluating that - I'm just noting the controversy. I think this film deserved more attention so this message could receive its fair day in court, rather than be casually dismissed. Overall it is an artistically crafted film that ends up being more interesting than actually entertaining or enlightening. Take from that what you will.

Addendum: After having read the actual novel and overall liking it, I uphold my opinion as stated above. However, changing the character's age from Middle School children to High School teenagers reduced the punch and gravity that the Kultgen novel had. It also would have created controversy which would have attracted some kind of attention and therefore commercial business, something this movie lacked on all fronts. Furthermore, while Jason Reitman is a capable director and this was a passion project of his (he personally loved the book), he is too quirky of a director to adapt what was an essentially cold and nihilistic treatise of lonely people stuck in a small town and their desperate quest for sexual fulfillment and happiness. Spoiler: It doesn't end well for very many characters.