Blended (2014)
Certified: 12A
Duration: 117 minutes
Directed by: Frank Coraci
Starring: Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Bella Thorne, Emma Fuhrmann, Braxton Beckham, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Kyle Red Silverstein, Shaquille O’Neal, Terry Crews
KRS release
Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore reteam for the third time in their third romantic comedy after The Wedding Singer (1998) and 50 First Dates (2004), now considered classics of the genre. Blended shows that both actors are still game enough and deliver the kind of easy entertainment that is expected of them.
Sandler is Jim, a widower raising three daughters: Hilary (Bella Thorne), a teenager who is quite a tomboy; Espn (Emma Fuhrmann), who still thinks that her mother is with them except for the fact that she is now invisible; and Lou (Alyvia Alyn Lind), who is six years old and has a habit of playing about being possessed such as in horror movies.
Barrymore is Lauren, a divorcee who has been through a tough time. She has two boys to raise: teenager Brendan (Braxton Beckham), who is very possessive of his mother, and Tyler (Kyle Red Silverstein), who has father and anger issues. At one point Lauren’s best friend Jen (Wendi McLendon Covey) brings the two together on a blind date… and the two do not hit it off at all, yet keep bumping into each other.
The two book separate holidays to Africa with their children, but in a quirk of fate, they end up in the same resort. There, the two families become closer to each other, while both Jim and Lauren start to get romantically interested. Meanwhile, Mark (Joel McHale), Lauren’s ex-husband, starts to get back in the picture.
It does not take a crystal ball to see how Blended will end as this is a movie that not only follows the template for the romantic comedy genre rigorously, but also for the mental image we have of what a Sandler and Barrymore movie should be. Most critics have dispensed away with this movie, but I believe this is mostly due to the backlash that Sandler is currently going through where he is getting paid back for the various inane characters he has played over the years.
Here his teaming up with Barrymore brings out the best in him. He once again plays another version of his man-child character he is well- known for. Through Barrymore, he has given his comedy a welcome addition of sweetness, making Blended both a romantic and family comedy.
The film belongs to a genre as old as Hollywood, where widowers with children from previous marriages end up falling in love and joining families. This time around the element of divorce is thrown in and it shows how Hollywood has had to adapt from the picture-perfect movie vision of the world as seen in the 1950s and 1960s. The fact that most of the film is set in South Africa makes for an unusual setting with Africa looking like a Disneyland resort.
The young cast of the film also come out well, with some of them going beyond just looking sweet. Blended is a light comedy which knows how to blend together the corny with the funny and the sentimental with the boyish comedy.