Big Screen Peter: Grown Ups

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie. Enjoy.

review by Peter Lewis

Have you ever been subjected to spending an evening with a group of people you don’t know so well, but they all know each other quite well? The evening is usually spent with them making jokes and telling stories about events in which you did not participate. See these folks go way back and your entire evening is spent realizing this fact. Over and over again. Unless you are lucky enough to be at a bar or some sort of party where there is copious amounts of alcoholic beverages, the entire night is often spent in frustratingly sober isolation.

While “Grown Ups” never reaches these extremes, one gets the sense that the relationships you see on screen are similar to reality. The majority of the film is spent with one or another cast member razzing the others with stinging one-liners of love. Much of the rest is spent in reminiscence of their adolescent exploits and failures.

If one was to make a film out of this sort of backwards looking insularity, the key is to create memories and stories that could easily transcend the boundaries of personal experience. Basketball games, summer adventures on a lake, childhood stupidity … it may not be universal, but they are all things most Americans of at least a certain age could appreciate. Yet, the film still largely falls flat. Those connections never seem to be made and the audience is left on the outside looking into a chummy world of rapid fire wisecracks. 

The premise of the film is appealingly simple: five inseparable friends win a little league basketball championship and are reunited some 30 years later when their beloved coach dies. Further, the film features a dizzying array of comedic talent. The star is Adam Sandler. He’s supplemented by actor/comedians Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, Rob Schneider and, in a tasteful if under-utilized cameo role, Dan Patrick, host of a well-listened to national radio program.

Following their coach’s funeral, the group gathers for a sort of mini-reunion at a lake house over the Fourth of July weekend. Each character has their own set of problems. Sandler’s character has lost touch with himself and his family. James’ is dealing with financial difficulties and a four-year old child who still breast feeds. Rock plays an under appreciated house-husband and Spade an unabashed reveler stuck in bachelorhood. Schneider is struggling with his own set of amorous issues and the resultant offspring.

Gathering together at this lake house exposes the realities of each person’s existence. Their carefully constructed appearances crumble. These flaws are meant to humanize the characters, to make us care for them, to help us relate to them.

This only works to an extent. There is no depth, no real connection. The filmmakers seem to view a moving picture not as a story to be told, but a vehicle by which one can tell jokes or capture funny moments, like Kevin James hurting himself. In this realm, Grown Ups is a smashing success.

There were plenty of great lines and quality slapstick humor, but as a piece of cinema it falls short. In fact, it never really lets go of the rope.

• Grown Ups is playing at the Carmike 14 and the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith, and the Malco Van Buren Cinema. Link here for time and ticket info.

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