Film review

A director redeems himself with his movie about a couple who become foster parents.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Octavia Spencer, Isabela Moner and Tig Notaro. Written and directed by Sean Anders.

It feels like I am living in a parallel universe. Can I really voluntarily be about to give 4 Big Fat Stars to a film directed by the same man responsible for the truly horrible Hot Tub Time Machine and the even more grossly unwatchable That’s My Boy? Has the festive season in fact claimed my very soul and what’s left of my ageing brain cells, rendering me incapable of making good life choices?

Let us assume for the sake of what’s left of my reputation that indeed I have not gone entirely mad, as the simple fact remains, I enjoyed the heck out of Instant Family.

Perhaps it’s because film-maker Sean Anders based this film on his own story – he and his wife fostered three children, later formally adopting them. Here he casts Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter/The Departed) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids/28 Weeks Later) as a couple who do exactly that, mining much comedy and some real heart from the challenging journey families take in the foster care system.

Wahlberg and Byrne have a great chemistry here as Pete and Ellie, a hardworking couple who renovate and “flip” houses for a living. They’re yet to have kids but decide to look into fostering a child. What they end up with instead is not one, but THREE children; a young feisty teenage girl Lizzy (Isabela Moner) and her two younger siblings Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and Lita (Julianna Gamiz). The others in the support group Pete and Ellie belong to are on their own fostering journeys; all are gratifyingly complicated and not always complete with a happy ending. Heading up the group are Karen and Sharon (Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro), who are the yin and yang of support workers and unflinchingly honest about the system and the emotional toll fostering will take on the families in their care. These talented actors take the comedy of their characters to hilarious heights and were easily one of the highlights.

The film also embraces the myriad reactions to the notion of fostering from family and friends and, again, there is a surprising, genuine humanity to these encounters, which gives a real heft to the proceedings.

There is no question in my mind that it takes a very special kind of person and family who open their homes and their hearts to fostering and I just love that this film celebrates and honours them. While of course this is a “Hollywood” take on it all, it still pulses with authenticity, unafraid to deliver on the more confronting aspects of the process, while at the same time seeing the humour and the heart in as much of that as it can.

I laughed and I cried through Instant Family and I hereby give it a joyous and worthy 4 stars.