A couple weeks ago, my friends and I decided to rent a movie for a girls night. We were going for “Big Hero 6,” but ended up with “Blended,” a comedy with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.
I usually am weary when it comes to comedies, especially romantic comedies, but I loved this one. What’s great about it is that is not wholly a traditional romantic comedy. So called “Rom-Coms” usually involve two single people who have great jobs and are typically gorgeous, but not a lot of responsibilities. In this movie, however, the main characters (Lauren and Jim) are both single parents.
Lauren and Jim are both relatively new at being single parents: Lauren is divorced and Jim’s wife died. And both of them have handfuls to deal with: Lauren has two incredibly boisterous boys who remind me somewhat of the Weasley twins and Jim has three girls, one of which is struggling with puberty and a dad who treats her like a boy.
Inadvertently, they end up at resort for families in Africa. Lauren and Jim (like Benedick and Beatrice, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger) don’t like each other at first, but eventually end up becoming mentors for each others’ children.
What struck me about the movie is that it does not pretend that there is dark in the world. While it is clearly a light family movie, it hints as much as it can at deep social issues. It sympathizes with those who do not have it together and the children who are starting to grow aware of themselves. It is thanks to the writers of the screenplay that audiences can see themselves in the teen girl, the boy who complains of his mother, but is incredibly protective of her, and the two parents who fail to connect to their offspring sometimes.
One example of this is a scene in which one of the girls leaves a spot at the table for the mother who she hasn’t let go of yet. Lauren tries to sit down in the reserved seat and the girl (sorry, I don’t remember her name) tells her its taken. Lauren takes a couple seconds to comprehend the situation and then moves to another seat. Throughout the movie, Lauren makes sure that the girl’s mother has a place to sit.
Not only does this attest to the strength of the writer’s minds, but also to the potential for brilliant human understanding and kindness.
On a scale of 1-10, I would give it an 8.5.