Parents heated over hanky panky
PARENTS are known to be the cold water that rains on the parade of their teenage children whenever they are participating in a big social event. This can be said of the parents of teenage girls and best friends, Julie, Kayla and Sam, who are preparing for the climactic event of their high school career – the prom – but their night is overshadowed by their parents’ need to control the evening’s events.
This sharp humoured film tells the story of parents Lisa (Leslie Mann), Mitchell (John Cena) and Hunter (Ike Barinholtz) who are horrified to discover a sex pact made by their daughters to lose their virginity by the end of the night.
The three parents try at all costs to stop the pact from happening, which includes following the girls to the prom and confronting them face-toface. When their first plan fails, the trio resort to another plan to stop their daughters.
What ensues is a series of ridiculous, enigmatic and embarrassing incidents, including an awkward moment that involves the words “butt chug”.
In her directorial debut, Kay Cannon creates an interesting subplot by magnifying the ultimate fears the three parents face.
The story of single mother Lisa and her anxiety over being separated from her daughter Julie after high school, father Mitchell who is afraid to admit that his daughter Kayla will become independent and won’t need him anymore, and divorced father Hunter, who is trying to shed his image of being the absent or failed father to Sam (who doesn’t enjoy Hunter’s presence in her life).
Cannon manages to convey the complex relationships that exist between parents and their teenagers. The supporting cast of Kayla’s mother (actress Sarayu Rao) and Julie’s boyfriend’s parents who are all on the side of the three girls, brings out the complexities of the parent-child relationship and displays the double standards around having sex on prom night – it’s acceptable behaviour for boys but not for girls.
Watching parents bicker over their child’s prom night also serves up some nice laughs .