Instant Family (2018)

Genre: Comedy 

Directed by: Sean Anders

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner

Time: 119 minutes

When Pete and Ellie Wagner, a couple who make a living renovating and flipping houses, decide that it may be time for them to start a family, the idea of adoption through foster care seems to be the avenue to choose for them. They end up fostering three siblings, Lizzy, Juan and Lita, the kids of a single mom who is a drug addict that was sent to jail.

The subject of adoption is one that hits close to home for the wife and myself, so we went to the movies last weekend to see it. It does a good job of showing how difficult it can be to care for foster children. Most of the acting was okay, though I found Rose Byrne’s performance a little over-the-top and exaggerated in the role of Ellie Wagner.

The biggest problem for me was in the writing. A lot of the characters, from the social workers, to the parents interested in foster care, to the nosy neighbor played by Joan Cusack, they were so big and clichéd. There was a definite lack of subtlety there. I get the idea of comedic effect, but it was not that funny. And most at the attempts at verbal comedy, through the script, felt awkward.

That being said, some moments still made me laugh, some made me smile and some others were quite touching. It was a decent film, not without its definite flaws.

Rating: «««