An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by David Gordon Green and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out. I remember, at the beginning of his career, Gordon Green was actually hailed by Roger Ebert as one of the most promising directors of his generation, no less than that. Unfortunately, since then, the guy had a prolific career, churning out already 17 directing efforts, but like other workaholics such as Steven Soderbergh or Woody Allen who delivered one movie almost every year during their whole career, it did have a (negative) impact on the quality of his work, I’m afraid. This movie was a perfect example. Indeed, it was such a derivative and predictable story. Basically, it was the story of a rich guy probably focusing too much on his work who suddenly had the custody of 4 young boys. At first, they all hate each other but, of course, they grow closer and, at the end, everything is all peachy between them. Seriously, how many times did we already get this storyline before? The fact that Gordon Green really did nothing new or interesting with the genre certainly didn’t help either. There were some moments during which you could feel his old indie sensibilities but I would be hard pressed to tell you exactly when and I saw the damned thing only yesterday. Concerning Ben Stiller, it was actually his first starring role in 7 years but, eventually, he didn’t really have to flex much his acting skills here. Anyway, to conclude, I think my rating was actually rather generous but the damned thing was rather harmless and I guess it might be worth a look but probably only if you really like the genre. 

6/10