Movie Review >> Parental Guidance

Director Andy Finkman (The Game Plan, You Again) took a heartwarming script from Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse (both co-wrote Surf’s Up, Lover Girl) and made a family film with some real characters that tug at your heart strings all the way through while making you laugh out loud! Simply, Parental Guidance is a film about a family needing a babysitter for their kids for one week…and it ends up being the grandparents. Look out old traditions meet new wave!

Billy Crystal (The Princess Bride, Analyze This) and Bette Milder (The Rose, Beaches) each give an amazing performance as grandparents who are trying to reconnect with Bette’s daughter's family. Considered the “other” grandparents, Bette makes it her mission that she and Billy will be just as loved as the “other” grandparents are and that they are worthy of having their pictures displayed on the mantel. Both Billy and Bette work well together, and feeding off each other’s experienced comic timing makes their banter so much fun and extremely funny to watch.

Now add the element that Billy and Bette are traditional and the fact that her daughter and her husband live in a very modernized (progressive) and socially programmed (literally) home in terms of raising their children and you have a mix of disaster, accidents and just plain family craziness that is real! Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny, What Women Want) gives an amazing performance as a mother who absolutely dreads the thought of her parents watching her kids for any period of time let alone a whole week. Her husband played by Tom Everett Scott (That Thing That You Do, Because I Said So) gives a great balance of supporting his wife’s angst while trying to keep peace in the family. The four of them just don’t mix in their traditions and simply don’t know how to talk to each other.

Now add three kids Joshua Ruch (Unstoppable, Megamind) as the kid with social issues, Kyle Harrison Brietkopf  (Being Human, Against The Wall) as the youngest and most obnoxious  five year old with not any restraint what-so-ever, and then add the quaint and extremely picky oldest daughter played wonderfully by Baliee Madison (Bridge To Tarabithea, Just Go With It) and you have the complete picture of a real dysfunctional family.

The grandpa (Billy) has his baseball dream mixed with making his wife happy. The grandma (Bette) has her family reuniting and getting reacquainted dream, although Billy is screwing everything up with his ways. The daughter (Marisa) has her ‘will I ever make it through the entire week dream’. The husband (Tom) has the dream that this will never work, but holds it together while he ends up going solo on a trip! Confused? Well, this movie has an amazing heart. It is really fun. And it is so funny and will literally have you in tears of happiness, joy and feeling good about what your own family may mean to you.

I was surprised at its comedic impact and that it was mixed with tenderness. So, I would recommend Parental Guidance to anyone who has a family and to anyone who wants to laugh out loud and then realize how important your relatives really are – no matter how far away they live! The movie was wonderful and one of the best I have seen for this holiday season!