Men, Women and Children
Men, Women and Children is a very complex narrative about the negative effects of modern technology and social media on our relationships and basic human interactions with each other. Director Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno) intertwines the stories of several parents and their teens with the common ground being the local high school in a small Texas town.
Adam Sandler (Don Truby) does a nice job as a porn addicted husband and father whose relationship with wife Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is sexless and downright dull. This leads both of them to infidelity jumpstarted by the plethora of options available on the internet. Much like father like son, Chris (Travis Trope), is a teenager also addicted to deviant porn which ends up negatively affecting a real life relationship/hookup with brash cheerleader Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia).
Hannah has her own issues as she and her mom (Judy Greer) have a paid website where she poses provocatively for all of her “fans.” This proves to be quite the downfall for her budding acting career and relationship with her mom once it’s found out. This also puts a strain on Donna’s newfound relationship with Kent (Dean Norris of Breaking Bad fame.)
Kent lives with his son Tim (Ansel Elgort) who happens to be the local team’s big football star. Kent’s wife leaves them for a man in California and he and his son find out about her upcoming nuptials via Facebook. This understandably upsets Tim and he promptly quits the football team and devotes most of his time to online gaming.(Much to the chagrin of almost everyone.)
Still with me? Well there is much more as Tim and school nerd Brandy (Kaitlyn Dever) find each other very attractive and form a bond which is all hidden from Brandy’s ultra-protective mom Patricia (Jennifer Garner). Patricia monitors just about every move and keystroke of Brandy’s online/social life almost to the point of suffocation.
There is also the story of anorexic teen Allison (Elena Kampouris) who starves herself with great support from an online forum all in the hopes of having a boy notice her.
No one in this movie is happy and Reitman makes sure that the viewer knows it’s all due to the fact that modern technology has overpowered our lives. I do think the stories are intriguing and many people will be able to relate. Sandler, DeWitt, and Dever provide good performances and overall I found it to be an interesting take on the way technology has changed our lives in just a few short years.
7 out of 10.
