Yes Day is a definite maybe
You have to wonder if some parents hold a grudge against Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
Inspired by her 2009 children’s book “Yes Day,” many parents have offered their children a reward in the form of such a day. On such an occasion, kids get whatever they want — within reason — and “no” is not in the parents’ vocabulary.
Now comes the movie version of “Yes Day,” debuting this week on Netflix, and you’d think many more such actual days will be spawned because of it.
Starring Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez as the heads of an appealing multiracial and bilingual family in the Los Angeles area, “Yes Day” checks the boxes of a movie meant for the whole family. Fun times? Check. Lessons learned? Check.
Gross-out humor? Bigtime check.
Entirely unspectacular but wholly watchable, “Yes Day” begins with narration from Garner’s Allison Torres in which she explains while some people tend to always say “no” to lots of things, ‘I said ‘yes to anything.”
The same could be said for Ramirez’ Carlos, who years ago had a meetcute with Allison at a coffee shop. After that, they traded a series of yesses, agreeing to ideas ranging from playing hooky for a day at the beach to meeting the other’s parents. Ultimately, they traded enthusiastic affirmatives at a wedding ceremony.
And then kids came. Three of them.
“‘No’ became the new ‘yes,’” Allison says.
In fact, in recent years, she’s fired off all varieties of the negative response, including “uh-hu,” “absolutely not” and even (gulp) “nope on a rope.” This has caused her to be seen as a tyrant by the kids: oldest daughter Katie (Jenna Ortega), middle kid Nando (Julian Lerner) and youngest child Ellie (Everly Carganilla). School
assignments turned in by the youngest two children — on a haiku, the other a video — express this in no uncertain terms.
Meanwhile, Dad is the “good cop.” He still says yes to things, then backing up Mom when she brings down the hammer. This, he says, is because as a lawyer for a company presently about to ship massive speakers with the potential to blow out people’s ears, he has to say “no” all day at work.
Much to the rest of the Torres family’s surprise, Allison agrees to a Yes Day for the kids. There are, of course, ground rules involving budgetary, geographical and other types of considerations.
There also are stakes: If Allison can’t resist a “no,” teen Katie gets to attend music event Fleekfest that night with her friend and without adult supervision; if Allison plays it cool, she gets to tag along with Katie, sit next to her and, most importantly, shoo away interested boys. (That is, like, Katie’s worst nightmare, obvi.)
“Yes Day” is anchored by several big sequences, the first involving a restaurant’s ice creambased eating challenge, on which the kids insist. According to the movie’s production notes, it involved 40 gallons of the treat and a three-day
shoot, with Garner and Ramirez responsible for most of the actual consumption. (You wonder if the one’s character’s race to the restroom is not solely a work of fiction.)
There’s also a friendly game of Kablowey. Unlike Yes Day, this water balloon game — a mixture of capture the flag and paintball — is not a real thing, but maybe give it time. Here, onetime action star Garner gets to channel a bit of her “Alias” character, Sydney Bristow, assisted by stunt coordinator Shauna Duggins, the actress’ stunt double dating 20 years to the show.
We also go to an amusement park, where coasters are ridden and THEN Allison goes a bit off the rails.
Lastly, Nando — who early on is experimenting with a miniature working volcano — hosts a Nerd Party. You can imagine what happens to the house.
It all builds to a stretch at Fleekfest, which features an appearance by
music star H.E.R., as H.E.R.self. (Get it? Yeah, sorry.)
A producer on the film, Garner recruited her director of solid 2014 family flick “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” for this one, and he keeps things moving if also never delivering anything all that memorable.
The book was adapted for the screen by Justin Malen (“Father Figures”) in a likewise ordinary manner. You’d hope for a few laugh-out-loud moments, but they’re hard to find if you’re past a certain age.
Fortunately, “Yes Day” is well-cast. While Ramirez (“The Girl on the Train”) plays second fiddle to the always-enjoyable Garner (“Love, Simon,” “Peppermint”), the three photogenic young performers get to shine a bit. Fans of “Jane the Virgin” may recall Ortega’s days as Young Jane, but the younger two are a bit less well-known. (The filmmakers say they discovered Carganilla doing stand-up comedy on YouTube.)
“Yes Day” certainly is more for young ones in the house than the adults. Parents simply will need to decide if the worthwhile lessons the movie has to offer children are worth putting the whole idea in their crafty little heads.