After director Jason Reitman drowned his audience in the syrupy conclusion of 'Labor Day', the opening minutes of his new film suggest he might have got his his hands on some gritty material and his feet back on solid ground. 'Men, Women and Children' kicks off portraying how social media affects American suburban communities. Almost all of the issues are connected to sex and the internet - teenage romance, extra-marital hook-ups, divorcée dating, obsessive masturbation, porn-induced impotence, hyper-controlling parents, anorexia, video game addiction, child exploitation and high school cyber-bullying. Unfortunately the script just skates over these dilemmas, leaving its collection of characters with far too many narrative arcs.
The fine cast turns in sound performances, but they're little more than cardboard cut-outs enmeshed in soap opera melodramas. Reitman attempts to give this middle-class stew some extra weight with irrelevant footage of a 1970's space probe departing the solar system, but the device fails to give the film any gravity. The plot-lines with the 'decent' people are happily tied up with pink ribbon, while the masturbators, fornicators and sexually-repressed snoops are left dangling in the void. 'Men, Women and Children' shows Reitman is still stuck in the treacly traditions of commercial cinema - with a cynical eye coldly calculating sweet box-office returns.
The fine cast turns in sound performances, but they're little more than cardboard cut-outs enmeshed in soap opera melodramas. Reitman attempts to give this middle-class stew some extra weight with irrelevant footage of a 1970's space probe departing the solar system, but the device fails to give the film any gravity. The plot-lines with the 'decent' people are happily tied up with pink ribbon, while the masturbators, fornicators and sexually-repressed snoops are left dangling in the void. 'Men, Women and Children' shows Reitman is still stuck in the treacly traditions of commercial cinema - with a cynical eye coldly calculating sweet box-office returns.