Every generation believes that things are not how they were when they grew up, and let’s face it things are not. I can go on and on about kids today and their addiction to their mobile devices and their lack of actual human interaction. I could do that, but then I will just come off sounding like some old guy, wait you say too late for that? What I really wanted to say was in the Internet age we are never really alone, that if you want you can find anything or anyone you want with a search engine and the click of the mouse.
Jason Reitman’s new film “Men, Women & Children” explores life in the Internet age. Don Truby (Adam Sandler) and his wife Helen (Rosemarie DeWitt) seem like your typical married couple who have been married for fifteen years and have just fell into the routines. They both feel neglected and each find their own ways to feel wanted by the Internet. Meanwhile their son Chris (Travis Tope) is having his own problem, after watching so much porn he is finding a problem finding inspiration. Based from the novel written by Chad Kultgen,, which was adapted by Rietman and Erin Cressida Wilson, the story doesn’t just follow one family. We also meet Donna Clint (Judy Greer) and her daughter Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia) who wants to be someone famous one day. Donna takes photographs of Hannah for a web site, which even has a private collection on it. You also have the over protective mother Patricia (Jennifer Garner) who reads every message her daughter Brandy( Kaitlyn Dever) receives and tracks her movement through her phone. Brandy meets Tim (Ansel Elgort) who is the star football player, but quits the team, because neither football nor he really matters in the grand scheme of the universe.
As you can tell there is a lot of stories going on in here, and most of them have paths that cross. The film opens up talking about Voyager, which was mankind’s first effort in exploring out universe, and the thing that caused problems for earth in “Star Trek The Motion Picture”. We get to see Voyager travel to space all while hearing Emma Thompson narrate about what Voyager and this film are about. Besides the characters played by Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever, who you actually care about, the rest you end up not really invested in. You have too many stories that you don’t care about going on at the same time. If that wasn’t enough to bother you, there are also times where you feel uncomfortable, almost as you are watching something you shouldn’t be with your mother. The things that “Men, Women, & Children” gets right is life in the Internet age. You can see they were on the right course, but somewhere got lost and made something far less exciting than their original idea. The only reason you should want to see this move is if you parents want to see what life is like your kids today, but if you rather not know, just stay home relax, and of course there’s always the internet.
Brian Taylor