Men, Women & Children

In his latest picture, Men, Women & Children, director Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air) takes on the mammoth subject of the potentially dangerous and distressing ways Internet culture has changed Western society. This ensemble film, based on the 2011 novel by Chad Kultgen, revolves around a group of high school teenagers and their parents dealing with the complex issues of modern life. Like Henry Alex Rubin’s Disconnect (2012), the film piles on the problems of technology (while showing none of the positive aspects) in a suffocating way. This should lead to audiences feeling doomed or dismissive; either paralyzed with fear that internet porn, celebrity culture, video game alternate realities, cyber-bullying, loose morals, and unattainable images of “hotness” will destroy the fabric of society, or laughing at how silly and simple-minded that paranoia is. In trying to both raise an alarm about these issues and present a reassuring view of the next generation’s wisdom in dealing with them, Reitman fails at provoking much thought or even eliciting an emotional response. The film seems as disconnected from its subject matter as the clueless parents are from their teen-age kids. And, like so many ensemble pictures, there are too many storylines going on for a two-hour film to develop satisfactorily. Almost every one of the plot threads is engaging, with characters that intrigue us enough that we stick with the picture just to see what happens next.  Unfortunately, these individual narrative threads don’t add up to a cohesive thesis. 

The key to the film’s limited success is the cast of terrific actors at the top of their games.  Most impressive are Rosemarie DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married, Your Sister's Sister, Margaret) as a bored housewife, and Dean Norris (HBO’s Breaking Bad) as a divorced dad. Both actors (who appear in separate storylines) give the best performances I’ve seen from them yet. The teens in the film, Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars, Carrie), Kaitlyn Dever (The Spectacular Now, Bad Teacher), and Olivia Crocicchia (Palo Alto) never come off as badly drawn clichés.  The only weak link in the cast is the often-disappointing Jennifer Garner (Dallas Buyers Club, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Juno). Once again, her portrait of a helicopter parent feels neither credible nor sympathetic. Judy Greer (Carrie, Playing for Keeps) plays another mom whose extreme choices are equally difficult to swallow, yet she's able to create a three dimensional woman who feels both real and relatable.