Instant Family (2018)

December 8, 2018 9:21 PM

When Pete and Ellie decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption. They hope to take in one small child but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious 15 year old girl, they find themselves speeding from zero to three kids overnight.
posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

Okay, so imagine the 100 minute long film that would be made under this logline and then wag your finger imagining all of the thornier stuff it might have addressed. This movie is 120 minutes long and does a plausible pass at a good chunk of that.

It's still silly Hollywood dramedy schmaltz. But it's still least 20% more woke and reasonable than you expected.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 PM on December 8, 2018

I really dislike Wahlberg as a person but for some weird reason his comedic timing/sense always gets me.
posted by M Edward at 2:07 PM on December 17, 2018

Interestingly, the date that this was posted (9 Dec 2018) was the date that I became a full-time parental figure of three children. It's been a traumatic and challenging time since then and I've strenuously avoided engaging with this type of cultural representation of parenting kids to whom one isn't biologically related.

But I finally watched this, and I think it does a superb job at attempting to capture some of these emotional peaks and valleys. I would even go so far as to say that this movie is a public service announcement that fostering is important and good work. I'm glad it exists.
posted by witchen at 7:49 PM on November 24, 2019