Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Terry Crews.
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 116 mins. Reviewed in Jun 2014
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Who would have thought? Adam Sandler in a film that is geared towards a family audience, no coarse language – well, more than a little innuendo, but generally of the PG style. Perhaps he is making reparation for films like That’s My Boy, Grown-ups 2.
While this is a take-it-or-leave-it kind of comedy, it is a pleasant enough outing for most of the family or for the undemanding audience. Critics tend to be unkind to Adam Sandler, dismissing his broad and sometimes crass comedy, and his popular entertainments – as if they were meant to be serious dramas rather than simply being a pleasing pastime.
At the opening, we see Drew Barrymore as Lauren, a divorcee trying to cope with two sometimes impossible boys at home. She is on a blind date, doing a favour for a friend, with Jim (Sandler) and the date is not going well at all, no chemistry between them. She arranges for a phone call citing an emergency at home so that she can escape – only for him to do the same before she does!
Lauren’s partner is about to be engaged to Jim’s boss but is not looking forward to taking on five children. They have bookings for a holiday, for blended families, in a safari resort in South Africa. Laura and Jim both get the idea of taking up the ticket – and both families find themselves in South Africa. On the one hand, there are all the clashes that we might expect but there are also episodes, especially with the children, where Lauren and Jim start to bury the hatchet. He becomes a pacifying funnel figure for the two boys. She is a listener for the girls, arranging a makeover for the older girl who was always mistaken for a boy, not wanting to take the place of their dead mother, with the middle girl constantly talking to the presence of her mother, making a place for her at the table. There are the expected sequences with the animals – and some jokes with them as well.
The film does serve as a promotion for this resort – but, it is very American in its extrovertedly affluent style, an intrusive singing and dance combo being rather alienating with their frequent performances, and plenty of PG-rated look at raucousness and innuendo. One of the difficulties in looking at the sequences is that the Americans confine themselves to live within the resort and the game park. There is no real acknowledgement of the 20th century history in South Africa and apartheid, the injustices of the period and the changes since. Blended is not meant to be a lecture, but it would have been strengthened by acknowledging South African realities instead of touristic fly-in, fly out.
While the outcome might be predictable, it does not take the quite predictable road, things being complicated when the two families return home. But, this is a film for families and so it ends very nicely. Interesting to notice that many critics, with their intense dislike of Adam Sandler, are unable to acknowledge this rather toned-down film for a broad undemanding audience. [ACBC/PM]
“Blended” (Warner Bros.) is that rarity of rarities, a sincere family film, and since it stars Adam Sandler, whose trademark is scatological gags, it’s more than a bit of a surprise.
At the same time, director Frank Coraci and screenwriters Ivan Menchell and Clare Sera hew to a rigid formula now common for the genre: Each child’s problem is dealt with individually and completely, without condescension.
There’s an exotic element, too, with blended families developing bonds at a high-end safari resort in South Africa. And there’s even an old-fashioned approach about sons needing fathers to teach them lessons about toughness, and daughters needing a mother’s uniquely compassionate understanding.
Sandler is the widowed Jim, manager of a sporting-goods store, with daughters Hillary, Espn (pronounced Espin, and yes, named after the cable-sports network) and Lou (Bella Thorne, Emma Fuhrmann and Alyvia Alyn Lind, respectively). Barrymore is the divorced Lauren, a professional closet organizer with sons Brendan and Tyler (Braxton Beckham and Kyle Red Silverstein).
Through a mutual acquaintance’s temporary breakup, they both finagle the same South African getaway for their families. Hilarity usually ensues under such circumstances, but instead, Jim and Lauren quickly rise to the tasks of dealing with their children’s issues, which include the normal physical changes for adolescents.
Such matters are dealt with forthrightly, without descending into any crude remarks. Life is dealt with as it occurs. Mature adolescents shouldn’t have trouble with any of this. The script strains not to offend.
From time to time, a South African male chorus led by Nickens (Terry Crews) pops up to lend amusing commentary. It’s all in good fun, and serves as counterpoint to the two families’ most awkward moments.
Toward the end of the story, Jim and Lauren’s budding romance takes an unexpectedly serious twist involving her ex-husband, Mark (Joel McHale), which keeps matters firmly anchored and away from cliches. [CNS/KJ]
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