Fostering a bond
Instant Family is a flawed, yet moving story about the challenges of being a foster parent.
Instant Family (★★★✩✩)
Director: Sean Anders
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Octavia Spencer
IF you think raising children is the ultimate challenge, try being a foster parent. Bringing up your own flesh and blood can already be overwhelming. Imagine having to look after children from another family! It’s definitely not a situation for the faint-hearted.
In Instant Family, Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne play Pete and Ellie Wagner, a well-to-do American suburban couple who find themselves in this very situation. Feeling a void in their otherwise comfortable lives, the two decide they want to become adoptive parents.
Things take an unexpected turn, however, after the Wagners become drawn to Lizzy, a temperamental 15-year-old Hispanic girl (Isabela Moner). And if that wasn’t complicated enough, she has two siblings, Juan and Lita (Gustavo Quiroz and Julianna Gamiz).
So what do the Wagners do? Well, to quote the Malaysian kiasu shopaholic mantra: Why just get one, when you can have a whole set? What follows is a whole lot of shenanigans as foster kids and parents alike have to learn how to live together.
Madness abounds, as expected, but also a lot of drama, as Instant
Family showcases aspects of the adoption system not many people would be aware of. For example: most people would think that having foster parents, particularly well-to-do ones, would seem like a treat to foster children.
As the movie shows, however, due to the baggage most of them have, this is not always the case.
Instant Family is directed by Sean Anders (Daddy’s Home, That’s My Boy, Horrible Bosses 2), who also wrote the screenplay with John Morris. The story is apparently based on Anders’ real experiences, having also fostered three children in his life.
As a result, the film has a very honest, personal feel to it, with many of the Wagners’ interactions with their three new children feeling authentic.
Certain scenes are funny – the Wagners spend a lot to buy their foster children expensive gifts, only for them to be more excited about the packaging it came in. Other scenes are moving – a parent being called “Daddy” or “Mummy” for the first time; Ellie bonding with her daughter over hair care.
Bring a tissue or two to this film, you may need it.
Instant Family also takes the time to explore issues such as societal perceptions about adoption, cultural clashes and parental responsibility, and it is at these scenes that the movie is strongest.
The biggest issue with this movie, however, is its tone. Despite some very heavy subject matter,
Instant Family seems to want to be a zany, lighthearted comedy, and executes this in the worst way possible. Moving scenes are followed by slapstick shenanigans, and characters often make silly jokes that affect the movie’s atmosphere.
And let’s not get started on the music. The film has the most cliche, manipulative soundtrack ever recorded in history, and the sentimental tunes at some sad scenes are so overdone they become cloying. Which is a pity. The movie’s subject matter is strong enough, and all these bells and whistles annoy rather than enhance it.
Acting is also pretty good. Byrne shines as the frazzled, somewhat overachieving Ellie, while Wahlberg is surprisingly likeable as her well-meaning, but often over-his-head husband Pete (and this reviewer is not usually a Wahlberg fan!).
Supporting characters are also fun: Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro get some really good lines as a couple of wacky specialists, while Margo Martindale almost steals the show as the overly fun-loving Grandma Sharon.
The biggest surprise in this film, however, is probably Moner, who really excels at playing Lizzy.
The young actress shows considerable depth and range, taking a character that one would usually just dismiss as “typical troubled teen”, and really making it her own. Her performance in the film’s climax is almost heartbreaking.
All in all, Instant Family is a little flawed. But it’s constantly entertaining, and will probably be a good watch, particularly with the family.
In a way, this movie is much like the experience of dealing with a child. Sometimes it is so silly it frustrates you, and you have to resist from trying to strangle it. Other times, however, it gives you something so wonderful you feel it was all worth it.
Parents will probably take the most pleasure from how the ups and downs of raising a child are depicted in their full glory (or horror). Non-parents, on the other hand, will either be hoping for a kid of their own soon, or be thankful for their current childlessness state!