Film takes a quick trip through a bad day
Brief running time makes the tedious tragedy of everyday life palatable
There’s no doubt the Cooper family had a very bad day, but how bad can any bad day be when it only lasts 81 minutes?
So to all those who say comedy is tragedy plus time, director Miguel Arteta’s take on Judith Viorst’s kids’ book proves a slightly different truth: The brief running time makes the tedious tragedy of everyday life palatable.
Because in the end, that’s what we are watching unfold in these primary- coloured frames designed for easy digestion and mass consumption: Plain old ordinary life struggles jammed into a boxy minivan of a movie.
At the wheel are Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner playing Ben and Kelly Cooper, your average suburban couple with four kids trying to cope with financial stress, one partner’s unemployment, another partner’s overloaded work schedule, and the everyday strain of parenting children with neverending emotional needs.
It’s real stuff, which is why we can give these poor people a little slack when everything goes slapstick wrong, because the Coopers are an exaggerated and often cloying reflection of us.
Moreover, the complex psychology of Viorst’s simple vision comes through in these kid- friendly frames, which is more to the point, because it’s Alexander who feels responsible for the dark cloud looming over the Cooper household.
In the opening sequence, our intrepid preteen is at school, and gosh darn it, people are mean to him. Things break. He loses stuff. He gets in trouble. At the height of his fury and feelings of self- pity, Alexander silently wishes that everyone in his family could understand what he is going through .
His dad’s big interview with the software development company hits the fan. His mom’s job at the book publishing company is threatened when she gives celebrity reader Dick Van Dyke a copy of a book on potty training that contains an unfortunate, and completely unbelievable, typographical error.
Then there’s his big brother who wanted to get his driver’s license so he could drive his date to prom, and his big sister looking to fly across the stage in the school production of Peter Pan.
Their days are starting to swirl too, so by the time baby Trevor — easily the cutest character in the whole movie, and played by twin girls — eats a green highlighter marker and dirties a diaper at just the wrong moment, it’s not like we aren’t expecting it.
The entire cluster of muck is front- loaded and forms 100 per cent of the actual plot, but it’s certainly not the most interesting thing about the film. The film’s ability to show us positive coping mechanisms, and a little perspective, prove a breath of fresh air.
Carell and Garner have the most heavy lifting to do, even though they are technically supporting roles, because they have to parent Alexander responsibly while still delivering comedy. The fact they nail the right notes while Alexander writhes in equal vats of selfloathing and self- pity is a significant accomplishment — one that exceeds making us believe in them as an actual couple.
Certainly not a standout, or even a laugh- out- loud kind of funny, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day still delivers an important life lesson that’s better to digest sooner than later: Life is not fair and people are selfish, but if you can laugh at the petty cruelty and abandon the insecurity, it can still be fun.