This American comedy/drama comes from Benjamin Epps in his feature directorial debut. The film centres on teenager Emily (Olesya Rulin) and her crazy dysfunctional family. When none of her family show up to her big jump-roping competition, Emily decides to take her parents hostage in hope of reeducating them to be a healthy family.
The highlight of this film is the array of colourful characters that form Emily's family, including eleven year old Lucinda (Joey King) who dresses up as famous characters from R-rated Hollywood films, for example Jodie Foster's twelve year old prostitute Iris, from 1976's Taxi Driver. The mother of the family is played superbly by Kristin Chenoweth as a super bitchy, self absorbed business woman. The mother character continues to uphold her bitchiness throughout most of the film, without succumbing to cliche sentimentality. Kristen is one of the only actors who could play this ruthless mother figure, while still keeping the character endearing, thanks to her great comic abilities.
The low-light would have been the handling of act three. It is hard film to wrap up due to the amount of characters and thus the amount of arcs that need closure. The current ending may not have the full emotional impact.
Otherwise this is a great farce comedy in vein of such films like A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
- but with a great family touch.
