This time of year always seems like a strange mash-up of films in theaters and available to stream.
After catching the “Nutcrackers” trailer on Hulu last week, I caved in to see the whole flick with hopes for Ben Stiller returning to lead a film for the first time in about seven years.
Unfortunately, I found all the good jokes were pretty much wasted in the trailer and the ending was a bit abrupt.
Along with that, the pacing was weird to me, too.
But, the film fared better by leaning heavily on its family ties and working through the grief of lost loved ones than anything else in my book.
I was just hoping for more of the patented slapstick comedy I’d come to expect from Stiller and he went a bit more serious with this one.
Nutcrackers is a comedy-drama film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Leland Douglas.
Stiller leads an ensemble cast with Linda Cardellini, Toby Huss, Edi Patterson, and Maren Heisler alongside real life brothers Homer, Ulysses, Atlas and Arlo Janson.
The movie clocks in at 104 minutes long and is rated TV14 – which mirrors PG-13 with parents strongly cautioned for a show appropriate for teens and young adults rather than children.
Michael "Mike" Maxwell (Stiller) is pulled away from his job in Chicago, following the death of his sister Janet and her husband.
In rural Ohio, he winds up having to look after his nephews Justice (Homer), Junior (Ulysses), Samuel (Atlas), and Simon (Arlo) Kicklighter, as social worker Gretchen Rice (Cardellini) looks for a foster home who will take them.
Mike is adamant that Gretchen finds the boys a home within the week so he can return to his job and life in Chicago.
The Kicklighter kids live on a farm and are unruly homeschooled children who often partake in dangerous recreational activities.
Mike is supposed to close a realtor deal for a train yard in Chicago, but his advisor Carol threatens to give the project to the untested Devin, whom Mike clearly despises.
The Kicklighter kids force Mike to think on his feet, while he in turn slowly grows accustomed to their rural living.
He bonds with them about Janet who ran a dance studio in town where they learned ballet.
Gretchen soon finds a couple that offers to take the two younger Kicklighters, but Mike refuses to separate them.
The kids vie for wealthy socialite Al Wilmington (Huss) to take them in, so Mike secures an invitation to his mansion for a Christmas party.
While there, Justice is revealed to be in a relationship with a girl named Mia (Heisler), who also went to the dance studio.
While Mike quickly rubs elbows with everyone there, the kids end up destroying a nativity display with a golf cart that sinks in the swimming pool, souring their chances of getting fostered by Al.
Mike goes to another prospect he meets named Rose (Patterson), but she turns out to be fostering solely for money and comes onto Mike, forcing him to turn her down.
Carol passes Mike up for Devin, angering him, but continues his search for potential foster homes in order to get back to his life in Chicago.
Junior, having written a "better" version of The Nutcracker ballet, inspires Mike to produce it for the local theater, not just to get funding, but also to potentially give the kids a greater chance of getting fostered.
While the Kicklighter kids put their estranged uncle through his paces, it’s also clear that they’re struggling with the death of their parents in their own way.
There’s growth between the boys and Mike and within Mike himself playing out on the small screen – it’s got just a sprinkle of holiday cheer to maintain my interested all the way through.
But, I don’t think you’ll find many teenagers that’ll enjoy it nearly as much as an adult.
