Parental Guidance (2012)
Certified: U
Duration: 105 minutes
Directed by: Andy Fickman
Starring: Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei, Tom Everett Scott, Bailee Madison, Joshua Rush, Kyle Harrison, Mavrick Moreno, Madison Lintz
KRS release
Billy Crystal and Bette Midler play Artie and Diane Decker, two grandparents who live far off from their daughter Alice (Marisa Tomei) who is married to Phil (Tom Everett Scott).
Artie works as a baseball announcer and his career has so far been limited to the minor leagues. His chances for promotion to the big league is quashed when he is fired.
That is when Artie and Diane decide to babysit their three grandchildren – Harper (Bailee Madison), Barker (Kylee Harrison Breitkopf) and Turner (Joshua Rush) – all of whom have their particular problems.
Harper is an unhappy teenager and has told no one about her desire to become a violinist. Barker is the youngest child and he is a bag full of naughtiness. Turner is stuck in the middle and he is bullied at school.
Alice is not all that keen on her parents’ style of taking care of children so she stays home with the children.
Soon Artie is trying to capitalise on the people Alice knows at ESPN to get a major baseball announcing gig. Meanwhile, Harper has a recital coming up, one that could mean that things in the family will come to a head.
Parental Guidance is the kind of film that is synonymous with the festive season, with feel-good atmosphere and, as such, this is perfect family entertainment. The film also provides interesting contrasts in how parenting has changed throughout the years.
The dynamics of the film are propelled forward even more in Crystal’s performance. It shows that there is still life for him, apart from hosting Academy Award shows.
He is not over the top and it is very reassuring to see that, even if he takes a string of bad decisions, everything still falls into place as should be.
Crystal has what it takes to be the character to light up the screen; but here he is balanced out by Midler who has a very strong presence. This is what a real grandma should be – she skews apart all the usual Hollywood stereotypes.
It is interesting to see how Tomei and Everett Scott get caught between these two veterans and even though they deliver good performances, they end up on the losing end.
The film has its fair share of low-brow humour but it has many things going for it to make it a viable choice for family entertainment: there are lessons to be learnt, laughs and, most of all, it is done with a lot of heart.
The troubles of the different generations are treated well and the film is not condescending towards its subject and its audience. The end result is a fun film that is a good start for the year.