Fostering comedy has heart on sleeve

Instant Family

12A, 118 mins

Inspired by the experiences of writer-director Sean Anders, Instant Family is a touching comedy drama about foster parenting that delivers its core messages of patience and self-sacrifice with sincerity and tearfilled eyes.

The opening hour mines a steady supply of chuckles from the misadventures of a happily married couple who welcome three troubled tykes into their ordered home.

Anders’s light touch and occasional splashes of syrupy sentiment give way to hard knocks and painful home truths in a poignant second half.

Pete Wagner (Mark Wahlberg) and wife Ellie (Rose Byrne, inset) renovate tired properties.

They offer a home to troubled 15-year-old Lizzy (Isabela Moner) and her siblings, 10-year-old Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and six-year-old Lita (Julianna Gamiz).

After a blissful honeymoon period, the Wagners clash with Lizzy, who is convinced her drug addict mother will clean up and reassert her custody rights.

Relatives rally around the exhausted couple, including Pete’s straight-talking mother (Margo Martindale).

Byrne and Wahlberg have a winning combination of cluelessness and caring, and the latter wrings real tears from his scenes with gifted young co-stars.

A family isn’t defined by the blood flowing through its veins, but by words and deeds, and Anders’ picture proudly wears its heart on its sleeve.