If you can look past Liev Schreiber's beard and stop wondering when Sabretooth is going to kill everyone, this is an amusing and affecting little family drama. It's true that about an hour in when you realize the movie's message is nothing more than "Life sucks. Keep going", you'll get a brief sense that your time has been wasted. Get over that disappointment and stick it out to the end. Every Day doesn't have some sort of spectacular finish. That would be very out of step with its low key manner. The ending does give you a sense of completion that validates a viewer's investment. You have to savor these subdued performances and quietly clever story all the way through to fully appreciate them.
Ned (Liev Schreiber) is a writer on an awesomely trashy TV medical drama. He's got a teenage gay son, Jonah (Ezra Miller), that he frets over and a sensitive pre-teen son, Ethan (Skyler Fortgang), that he tries to be patient with. Ned's also got a beautiful wife, Jeannie (Helen Hunt), who's just returned home with her elderly, ill and emotionally toxic father in tow. Ernie (Brian Dennehy) is the sort of stubborn, disconnected parent who can only seem to engage his children through criticism. As Ned worries about Jonah starting to date and has to deal with a wife perpetually angry from dealing with her father, he's also confronted by trouble at work and the temptation of a hot co-worker who has an unencumbered life that looks pretty good to Ned right now.
This is an enjoyable and well made motion picture that employs and unfocused narrative to great benefit. Though Ned is the center of things, he doesn't dominate the story in any way. Not only are Jeannie's struggles with her father largely independent of Ned, but Jonah, Ernie, Ned's hot co-worker and even his demanding boss (Eddie Izzard) are all given their own little battles to deal with in the story. Those secondary story lines, however, reflect back onto what happens with Ned in a way that gives the film an unforced unity of emotion. Jonah's difficulty in dating validates Ned's concerns. Ernie grappling with his mortality seeps into Ned's brain and heightens his sense of being trapped. The things that attract Ned to his co-worker eventually blow up and make him appreciate his own life. His boss is not just a threat but the boss' uneasiness in dealing with his lover's teen son mirrors Ned's worries about Jonah, creating a potential link between the two that the audiences longs to see Ned connect.
A lot of attempts at this kind of family drama get overpowered by one central character and one central theme, with all else reduced to window dressing. Every Day achieves an organic relatability without ever losing its way in meandering digressions. The film never gets caught up in trying to make this out to be the worst moment for Ned and his family or strains a muscle trying to elevate this family's story into some transcendent realm of meaning.
Which is the only real problem with this movie. It's not edgy or intense or provocative of compelling. It's a pleasant hour and a half that maybe gives you a chance to take a breath and realize the problems in your life aren't quite as overwhelming as you make them out to be. Every Day lacks that "hook" to grab onto the viewer and pull itself of the crowded entertainment field. I can't imagine too many people hating this film and I can't imagine too many people loving it, but this sort of middle ground entertainment has a hard time find a foothold in today's cultural deluge.
I'm glad I saw this film and how often can you really say that? Maybe instead of always going for the home run and usually striking out, we'd all be better off if more filmmakers did what Richard Levine does here and try to hit for average.
Ned (Liev Schreiber) is a writer on an awesomely trashy TV medical drama. He's got a teenage gay son, Jonah (Ezra Miller), that he frets over and a sensitive pre-teen son, Ethan (Skyler Fortgang), that he tries to be patient with. Ned's also got a beautiful wife, Jeannie (Helen Hunt), who's just returned home with her elderly, ill and emotionally toxic father in tow. Ernie (Brian Dennehy) is the sort of stubborn, disconnected parent who can only seem to engage his children through criticism. As Ned worries about Jonah starting to date and has to deal with a wife perpetually angry from dealing with her father, he's also confronted by trouble at work and the temptation of a hot co-worker who has an unencumbered life that looks pretty good to Ned right now.
This is an enjoyable and well made motion picture that employs and unfocused narrative to great benefit. Though Ned is the center of things, he doesn't dominate the story in any way. Not only are Jeannie's struggles with her father largely independent of Ned, but Jonah, Ernie, Ned's hot co-worker and even his demanding boss (Eddie Izzard) are all given their own little battles to deal with in the story. Those secondary story lines, however, reflect back onto what happens with Ned in a way that gives the film an unforced unity of emotion. Jonah's difficulty in dating validates Ned's concerns. Ernie grappling with his mortality seeps into Ned's brain and heightens his sense of being trapped. The things that attract Ned to his co-worker eventually blow up and make him appreciate his own life. His boss is not just a threat but the boss' uneasiness in dealing with his lover's teen son mirrors Ned's worries about Jonah, creating a potential link between the two that the audiences longs to see Ned connect.
A lot of attempts at this kind of family drama get overpowered by one central character and one central theme, with all else reduced to window dressing. Every Day achieves an organic relatability without ever losing its way in meandering digressions. The film never gets caught up in trying to make this out to be the worst moment for Ned and his family or strains a muscle trying to elevate this family's story into some transcendent realm of meaning.
Which is the only real problem with this movie. It's not edgy or intense or provocative of compelling. It's a pleasant hour and a half that maybe gives you a chance to take a breath and realize the problems in your life aren't quite as overwhelming as you make them out to be. Every Day lacks that "hook" to grab onto the viewer and pull itself of the crowded entertainment field. I can't imagine too many people hating this film and I can't imagine too many people loving it, but this sort of middle ground entertainment has a hard time find a foothold in today's cultural deluge.
I'm glad I saw this film and how often can you really say that? Maybe instead of always going for the home run and usually striking out, we'd all be better off if more filmmakers did what Richard Levine does here and try to hit for average.