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Men, Women & Children: Not So Smartphone Society
By Sandra Olmsted
Director Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children chronicles what changes smartphones and constant connections done ot not to modern life. However, the changes feel like the 1960s sex farce that attempted to negotiate the societal changes wrought by greater mobility and greater availability of telephones, such as Boeing, Boeing (1965), A Guide for the Married Man (1967) and The Facts of Life (1960).
Like those 1960s sex farces, Reitman’s film shows that, despite the changes wrought by today’s technologies, people haven’t changed and still have to deal with the consequences of their actions; however, Reitman does it without much humor. Despite having Adam Sandler as the lead and despite getting a nuanced performance from the comedian, Reitman consistently goes for the dramatic, sometime maudlin, in his and co-screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson’s script.
Having been married long enough to get bored and complacent, Don (Sandler) and Helen (Rosemarie DeWitt) Truby find sexual outlets through the internet, but will their marriage survive? Meanwhile, has their son Chris (Travis Tope) has watched so much deviant porn online that his “hookup” with the classmate Hannah Clint (Olivia Crocicchia) is in jeopardy? Would Hannah have a reputation for hooking up, if her mother, Donna Clint (Judy Greer), hadn’t let Hannah’s website tip into something other than a site for her acting portfolio? Will Donna, a single mother whose attempt at Hollywood stardom resulted in Hannah, see the error of her ways? Will her mistake jeopardize her budding relationship with Kent Mooney (Dean Norris), who wife ran off to California with another man last year?
Kent’s son, Tim (Ansel Elgort), contemplates themeaninglessness of life after his mother “abandons” them, but how far will he take these nihilistic thoughts? What will Kent do about Tim’s decision to quite football? What will Tim’s former teammates do when they blame him for their losing streak? Has Tim submerged himself too far into a violent online video game? Can his relationship with Brandy Beltmeyer (Kaitlyn Dever) give Tim someone to care about and help him believe that life is worth living? Or will Brandy’s meddling, paranoid, helicopter mother, Patricia (Jennifer Garner), put Tim’s tenuous hope in jeopardy? Is Patricia right about her policy of monitoring every keystroke on her daughter’s computer, or is Patricia just driving her daughter into more dangerous online activities? If the parents of anorexic Allison (Elena Kampouris) adopt Patricia methods would they finally realize that Allison uses the internet to fuel her anorexia? While Allison’s new, thin body may get the attention of boy she crushes on, does her lack of self-confidence put her in jeopardy of being used sexually?
Although the theme of meaning of life compels, the narration (voiced by Emma Thompson) and the images of Voyager exiting our solar system and earth becoming a tiny, “pale blue dot” points to meaninglessness. Furthermore, Reitman’s simultaneously indicating both forgiveness and dire consequences by giving the characters an ethic/moral pass on bad behavior and punishing them physically and emotionally for their transgressions. This lack of clarity on the film’s central message ultimately undermines the film.
Good performance — especially by Sandler in a surprisingly beautiful performance, Kampouris who channels the insecurity of too many teenagers, and Elgort who shows he has great dramatic acting chops — do make the melodramas fascinating.
Men, Women & Children runs 119 minutes and is rated R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue throughout-some involving teens, and for language. Men, Women & Children, a Paramount Pictures release, opens in theaters Oct 17.
