4.5/10

Is better, faster, smarter technology what is best for us? This film tries to answer that question with some overbearing tones, and irresponsibility from characters who can never quite own up to their own faults. Men, Women and Children follows the story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents as they attempt to navigate the many ways the internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives. The film attempts to stare down social issues such as video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the sharing of illicit material on the internet. As each character and each relationship is tested, we are shown the variety of roads people choose. Some tragic, some hopeful as it becomes clear that no one is immune to this rapid social change that has come through our phones, our tablets, and our computers. When i saw the trailer for this film, i was excited because there has never been a better time to expose the flaws to having such genius technology. What ruined director Jason Reitman’s film for me was the ridiculous situations that he blames on such technology. I am all for pointing out the flaws in any system that has such a vast following in our world, but the movie wants to give the problems that the characters have with themselves and blame it on their cell phones or computers. An example of this is that one sophomore cheerleader decides to sleep with an older boy, which leads to an abortion that she never fully recovers from. Not sure what the phone did wrong in this scenario. If that’s not enough for you, take the fact that each character in this film has the most ridiculous sexual fetishes that tries to showcase that every teenager is sex-only interested while he is having sex with a football. That last sentence wasn’t me making anything up. There is a scene in the film where a boy drills a hole into a Nerf Football and goes to town on it with his bed. Another thing blamed on cell phones is the infidelity of a marriage. Adam Sandler and Rosemarie Dewitt are the married couple in question in this film, and their reason for cheating on the other one is because of how far they have grown apart. I don’t have a problem with this overused storyline, but what is it doing in a movie referencing the horrors of technology? The film also doesn’t have much of a score or soundtrack. Instead it casts these hollow piano notes whenever someone is going through something rough. It makes the presentation a very dry one that quickly dulls out. The film is nearly two hours long, and there was certainly enough here to believe that they could’ve pulled that time off without any serious pacing problems. The cast is certainly there. In addition to Sandler and Dewitt, Dean Norris, Judy Greer, Ansel Elgort, Jennifer Garner, JK Simmons, and Dennis Haysbert round out a cast that always feel more like character stereotypes of who they are supposed to play. Garner for instance is a mother who severely invades the privacy of her daughter. She hacks her Facebook pages, she tracks her cell phone at all times, and tells her who she can and can’t hang out with. I think her role in particular is done with some brash severity, and it doesn’t do anything to support the argument that the technology is the bad thing when compared to a mother who is mentally psychotic. If the film could’ve stuck more to the morals of teenagers underestimating the uses of their technology, it could’ve been a front runner for the best social message of the year. Instead, we get a film that feels like an after school special with a lesson that leaves people asking more questions leaving the theater than they had coming in. I can’t recommend this film. If you have children, this film treats them like they are complete morons. Kids make mistakes, but the ones in this film are utterly ridiculous.