Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner, Margo Martindale, Julie Hagerty, Gustavo Quiroz, Julianna Gamiz, Octavia Spencer, Tig Notaro, Tom Segura, Allyn Rachel, Britt Rentschler, Jody Thompson, Michael O’ Keefe, Joan Cusack, Gary Weeks, Joy Jacobson, Andrea Anders, Kenneth Israel, Hampton Fluker, Randy Havens, Lliza Schesinger.
A film that will leave you feeling devastated for all the right reasons, one that will have you laughing in empathy at the situation, one that will have you searching for a quiet, dark, solitary corner of the cinema complex once the lights have gone up, is one that deserves the most endearing of praise that you can muster, even if you feel a little coerced into feeling the emotions reeling round your heart and mind, you know you have witnessed the point of cinema, to tell a story well enough to make you change your mind.
It is with that in mind that Instant Family sears its way into the collective cinema goer’s mind, it is not the most fantastic of plots, there is nothing that will make an audience gasp at the whole notion of the fantastic and the dramatic. What it is though, is a stark reminder that whilst we profess with earnestness that the children are our future, we systematically go out of our way to destroy their world, we create havoc, we abuse our position of moral authority, we constantly let them down and lie to their faces but for those that try their best, a family is often the cause of sorrow and joy in equal amounts.
Being a parent is special, but perhaps we take it for granted, and when we fail we are too hard on ourselves, we are after all only human; however it takes an extraordinary person or couple to step up and become foster parents, to work through what is left after the fallouts that come into our lives, and whilst Instant Family is perhaps designed to pull on the heart strings, not pull – heave upon them till they cannot take anymore, it is a fair and true depiction of the way some parents treat their children and the need for more people to foster and take interest in children’s lives.
It is in the performance of Isabela Moner as the damaged, but keeping it together for her siblings’ sake, teenager Lizzie that really catches the eye, and even if we cannot relate to the idealism and frustration of the foster side of the story playing out, we can all see through the eyes of Ms. Moner’s Lizzie. To be conflicted about having always been neglected by the one person she painfully adores, to have been abused mentally by what she has seen and the constant passing over as would-be foster parents look for the sweet and the adorable, the less broken and to show that through rebellion and the desire to be liked is an astonishing portrayal. In is in this young actor’s hands that the film soars, and whilst the thought will be on how Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Margo Martindale and Julie Hagerty deal with their emotions at suddenly becoming parents and grand-parents, it is to Ms. Moner that the film graces itself into your heart.
Instant Family will do wonders for the foster and adoption services, the only problem being is that it might be seen as a romanticised version of events in which some poor unfortunate souls might be left to the system and heartbreak more than once. A good film, one that makes all the right noises and isn’t afraid to show the depth of character needed to take on such a monumental task, worth every moment you spend looking for a place of privacy afterwards in which to shed tears.
Ian D. Hall