directed by David Wain
written by Paul Rudd, David Wain, Ken Marino, Timothy Dawling
starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Jane Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Jeong, Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, Nicole Randall Johnson
Ah, kids. They bring out the best and worst in us, don’t they? With their big, open eyes and claws they are ready to pounce at any given moment. In this film, two unlucky bastards are forced by law to take an interest in a child who has been deemed difficult enough to warrant some extra added attention.
Danny Donahue (Rudd) bitches about not being anywhere in life and how much he hates his job. He’s angry at everyone and takes it out in little ways like the poor woman at the café with whom he argued about the legitimacy of the term “venti”. He’s 35 and unmarried although he’s been seeing Beth (Banks) for seven years and thinks about settling down with her. He’s in a rut and everything seems to be spiraling downhill. Wheeler (Scott) on the other hand loves life. He loves his job, he loves having sex with available women, he doesn’t worry about anything.
Everything is going along the same as it every was. The pair are driving the Minotaur truck around to various schools to teach the kids about the joys of power beverages and staying off of drugs. Finally Danny snaps and warbles something into the microphone about how drugs are fun and energy drinks are poison. Then they go outside and their truck is being towed. In the spirit of taking back his life, Danny jumps into the truck and manages to break away only to run up the side of a horse statue in front of the school. They are charged with several counts and threatened with jail. Beth is a bigwig lawyer and she gets them another deal. 150 hours serving time at Sturdy Wings.
The idea of this film is rather ingenious. Force two guys with absolutely no parental instincts into situations where they will have to react to those charming little things kids do to so unnerve adults who mostly want to flee. Danny gets Augie Farks (Mintz-Plasse), a kid with a decided passion for a live action role playing game with great costumes, music and tournaments where they slay each other and blather on about goddesses and knighthoods. Augie is really good at it and is only at Sturdy Wings because his dad seems to think it’s a bit queer to prance about wearing a cape.
Wheeler’s charge is foul-mouthed Ronnie Shields ( Thompson), an eight year old motor mouth who has wearied nearly a dozen previous attempts to corral him. He’s hard on Wheeler and seems to be acting out because his dead-beat dad jumped ship leaving him in the care of his hard-working mother Karen (Johnson).
So, the experimental journey commences. The two men eventually bond with their “littles” and eventually everyone learns a valuable lesson about responsibility and trust. Indeed, the grand bang final sequences allow for a massive group hug that threatens to choke the life out of everyone involved.
The great Jane Lynch has a truly manic turn as the hard scrabbled Gayle Sweeny, who runs Sturdy Wings. Gayle is perfectly open with her less than illustrious past where she was a drug fiend who occasionally performed various unique and challenging services for money. Lynch gets all the best lines which seem to center around certain perversities that make up Gayle’s character. Gayle is no-nonsense, paranoid, and fiercely protective of both the children and the integrity of her organization. She is the hard wall that the two men must climb lest they tumble hard and end up on the receiving end of some not so nice intimations by various tops in the slammer.
One of the themes in this film is the necessity of finding a plan and sticking with it. Danny is a man who has floundered causing him to lose Beth and any sense of purpose he may have at one time possessed. He’s grinding in place, unsure of himself or his place in the world. He is clearly unable to decide on a direct course for himself and it has turned him bitter and unwilling to participate openly with the world. Wheeler is perfectly content with his dissolute lifestyle and seems at ease with what he has become. He takes life as it is and enjoys his pleasures as he finds them.
The film combines some gentle, bawdy humor with a fast pace that is easily digestible as pure entertainment. There are messages in this film but they don’t overpower the narrative which provides the characters with room to express themselves and actualize specific aspects of their personalities that many have been left unattended to previously. The characters are genuinely likable and what they do matters in the end. This is the work of the writers and the cast who have come together to create a work that is strangely wholesome despite the prevalence of swear words mostly ricocheting off the tongue of Ronnie.
The performances in this film are all quite effective in conveying the mood and tone of the picture. Paul Rudd is certainly one of the most affable actors working in Hollywood today. He generates a tremendous amount of sympathy for each of his characters and this role is no different. Danny is troubled initially and Rudd conveys this turmoil effortlessly. His performance assures that the audience will be rooting for Danny to solve something for himself and return some balance to his life. Seann William Scott projects an engaging charisma for the duration of this film. He conveys a character that is immensely likable because he seems to always get precisely what he wants and that’s always a desirable trait for any audience to consider. As mentioned Jane Lynch is pitch perfect playing a very strange woman who somehow managed to start a business hawking strange underlings to strangers. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is in danger of being typecast as the supernerd whose actually supercool in a most dramatic and appealing fashion. Augie is one of those characters that it is impossible not to like. His evolution is one of the film’s salient aspects and it’s a great joy to watch him finally realize himself in a somewhat profound way. Bobb’e J. Thompson is pure nirvana in this film. He’s slick, agitated, and genuinely funny with just about every step he takes. Ronnie is so smart and alert in this film and he represents so many similar children who truly need role models in their lives to teach them a thing or two about this living mess.
Overall, this film captures an essence of childhood that is often exploited but no so commonly treated with the concern and dare I say tenderness that is on display here. The premise of this film opens up a dialog about an exceedingly necessary aspect of contemporary culture. It is certainly awash with some temperamental foulness but for the most part this is a clean, well-produced work that manages to edify and entertain without becoming manipulative or cloying. The performances are all well-rounded and richly textured and the genuine feeling is upbeat and warm. Ultimately, this film engages the viewer from start to finish. There is not a dull moment in the entire thing and it truly does satisfy all the criteria one normally brings into such affairs as these.
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