Review: Men, Women & Children

Men, Women & Children means to be a serious movie, touching on life, love and identity in the digital age to make a social commentary / cautionary tale about the disconnectivity of the most connected era of humankind.

Director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and co-screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary) begin with the spacecraft Voyager 2 reaching the edge of the universe, carrying with it a record of life on Earth for other civilisations to discover. Yet look closer - what would others see? Chad Kultgen, on whose novel the film was based, presents a society tweeting, texting, and trolling, too lost in their virtual realities to open their eyes and appreciate what's around them.

Don Truby (Adam Sandler) has logged on so many times to porn sites that malware has rendered his computer useless. He uses his son Chris's (Travis Tope) computer, discovering that his son has also been looking at online porn (so much so that he can't get an erection on his own much less deal with a real live girl). Don feels a certain sadness at not sharing this moment with his son in the way Don discovered his father's collection of porn magazines, then proceeds to jerk off. Don and his wife Helen (Rosemarie DeWitt) haven't had sex in two months and both resort to the Internet to fulfill for themselves what they cannot for each other.

The children aren't faring any better. Chris is pursued by the heavily flirtatious Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia), who is hellbent on becoming famous, always ready to strike sexually suggestive poses for her camera-wielding mother Donna (Judy Greer), a failed actress now effectively her daughter's pimp. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Patricia (Jennifer Garner), whose hypervigilant patrol of her daughter Brandy's (Kaitlyn Dever) life knows no bounds. She relentlessly tracks her well-adjusted daughter's digital footprint, monitoring and censoring any communication she deems suspect. Despite her mother's suffocating grip, Brandy is able to embark on a relationship with Tim (Ansel Elgort), whose decision to quit the football team and retreat ino the virtual gaming world has detached his from his recently divorced father Kent (Dean Norris), himself a former football player.

Let's not overlook Allison (Elena Kampouris), Hannah's classmate, whose dangerous fixation on her increasingly thin frame and crush on the careless and insensitive Brandon (Will Peltz) result in tragic consequences. His deflowering of her is the saddest moment of the film full of depressed scenes - Allison is hesitant but too insecure to do anything but agree. After it's done, he goes back to the couch as if nothing ever happened and she returns to her friend's bedroom, her absence hardly noticed.

Reitman has stocked the film with talent - one would be hard-pressed to find a weak link in this cast which also includes Dennis Haysbert and J.K. Simmons. Emma Thompson's narrator returns every now and again to reinforce the seriousness of the themes at hand. There are salient points made about the gap between direct and online communications, the proliferation of sex and pornography and the seeming nonchalance with which the younger generation treat it; and a lament for romance and eroticism, both endangered in this day and age.

The problem with Men, Women & Children is one hardly feels stirred by the characters' crises. There's a detachment that envelops the film, strangling it much like Garner's character does her daughter's freedom. It feels too clinical, as if Reitman were asking the audience to simply observe the goings-on and take notes for later analysis. As such, one comes away thinking of Elgort's Tim, who declares all things pointless. In spite of the actors' labours and several intriguing ideas, Men, Women & Children is ultimately pointless.

Men, Women & Children

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Written by: Jason Reitman, Erin Cressida Wilson; adapted from Chad Kultgen's novel

Starring: Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, Olivia Crocicchia, Elena Kampouris, Travis Tope, Dennis Haysbert, J.K. Simmons, Emma Thompson