Father Figures (2018)

Kyle (Owen Wilson) and Peter Reynolds (Ed Helms) attend their Mother’s wedding to find out that after years of thinking their father had died due to illness, their Mother had lied and their real father may still be out there. they both set off on a trip to try and find him, they get to spend some time together, and they meet some interesting characters along the way.

First of all, I wanted to see this because the trailer looked like this would be okay. The reviews, however… THE REVIEWS!!! People can be so mean, but it worked, it roped me in further and I decided I had to see it.

So, this story isn’t an original idea, siblings set off to find their parents, they get into a pickle more than once, there’s a twist, and at the end everyone is happy and after years of bickering – the siblings get on great. But it was fine, I don’t want to use the word light-hearted, (because what is light-hearted about absent parents?) but I will, because it is an easy comedy. It doesn’t intend to offend anyone.

The most redeeming thing about this film was the cast.

                                 

I’ve seen so much controversy around the cast, and didn’t realise before how much of a ‘marmite’ actor Owen Wilson is for some people. I think he’s a gem, he’s like Hugh Grant; he basically always plays the same character, but it works, and rarely flops. I thought he was good in Father Figures, but I am a Wilson fan. This is the same with Ed Helms, I am a fan, so I thought he was good. The chemistry between the two though, is what I’ve seen to internet kicking off about. Was it really that bad? I mean, I had to remind myself that they were brothers sometimes, but it wasn’t completely awkward throughout. The cast did an alright job, I guess?

I have to say though, I believe a chunk of the responsibility for the bad parts of this film have to go to the script. The writing for this was poor, it could have been rounded up in a much neater way. There were times when this film went off on a tangent, and other times it just dragged. You were given glimpses of what the characters are actually like, and it started to get good, and sometimes even funny… and then we lost this. The pacing was just so off, it was almost like the editors were like ‘ehhh, that’ll do, I’ll just put whatever in, it’s nearly home time’.

Saying that, though… I don’t think the comedy was a massive flop, that kept the film light, and actually watchable, however – if you don’t like dad jokes, dick jokes, or dirty jokes about mums even slightly amusing, just don’t bother. I’m sure this film could offend some people, but really, it was pretty harmless. It’s no comedic masterpiece, but there were some bits of dialogue that absolutely tickled me, and I ended up doing a massive belly laugh.

One problem I did have, was the score. I was SO aware of this throughout the film, because we get a nice landscape of one of the random places in America they arrived in and playing on top of this was Grouplove’s Ways to Go. I don’t remember hearing more than 1 chorus of a song. Was there a soundtrack? Was there any other sound? Did they forget to put that in?

This film wasn’t bad in any sense. Well, not as bad as the internet claims it is anyway… It just wasn’t really very good.

Average comedy, average performances. Bad pacing, bad writing. Though, despite all that – somehow it was watchable.

5/10

CINEMATES - S

Wonder (2017)

Wonder, is the story of young boy August Pullman, who until fifth grade is home schooled by his mum. He suffers from a genetic disease which causes his facial differences. The story explains the difficulties he faces as a child who isn’t quite ordinary, and the effect this has on his family and others in his life.

The trailer for this film shows you everything already, right? No, it doesn’t. I was definitely happy about this for starters. The way the story is split definitely helps give this story some further depth. So, for example it’s not just a story from the point of view of August. We start of learning about him, then how this affects his sister, Via – here we get to learn more about her experiences past and present. Next we move on to Via’s best friend Miranda. After this we learn about Jack Will, another young boy who is in the same form class as August at school, and so on. There is a nice chunk of character development throughout this film, which means it straight away reduces the risk of the story becoming disjointed.

To be fair, it is well written. It is paced fine, though for a film of this genre – seems to be quite long. I can’t say that this is a bad thing though. I really think this level of development is crucial for it to have any effect on the audience. It is a touching story, and the way it is structure is good.

The cast in this film do deserve serious credit. As well as the team of make-up artists, whose work although not breath-taking, was pretty damn good.

There are numerous moving moments, and if you are even the slightest bit emotional, you will cry at least once. Again, something that shows this film has done it’s job, you leave feeling disappointed that people can actually treat people in a way August is treated. This is because you have truly connected with the characters on screen. The chemistry between Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts was perfect. You could tell that they had a strong bond as parents because of all they had been through with their family and their child. You could see the strains the past, and current events were putting on relationship’s such as Robert’s character, as the mother, and her daughter. As well as this, you could see the August was a young boy who just had difficult things going on – like kids do, and he wanted his dad to help him out of it.

Of course, the way certain characters are portrayed is dramatized, and in some scenes it got too much. For example, the way children were shown as being incredibly mean – yes, I am completely aware things like this do happen in society, but not to the extent that it was emphasised in this film, necessarily. By that – I don’t mean, people just are mean in such a way, I mean it as there are 5 or 6 kinds of people in the world, and events don’t always occur in the way they do in Wonder.

But, whatever, if you want nit-picking, that’s my criticism. It’s a fictional story – admittedly, it claims to be based on a true illness etc. but there are, from what I’m aware, no true events on which this film is based.

I liked this film. I think it is moving, inspiring, and it made me feel all sorts of things. I recommend this film, and I’m sure I’ll be watching this again.

6.5/10

CINEMATES - S