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Columns : Screen Scene Last Updated: Nov 21, 2018 - 11:14:44 AM


Instant Family - Movie review by Rouén Robinson
By Rouén Robinson
Nov 20, 2018 - 4:25:53 PM

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A heart warming dramedy that captures a glimpse of the complex emotional perspectives of those involved in the foster care process.

Just add chaos laughter awkwardness mistakes love.

A married couple decide to start a family and find themselves traversing the daunting landscape of foster care adoption. They were expecting to take in a single child but end up opening their doors to three siblings of different ages as they try to figure a way to work around instant parenthood and form bounds that could lead to them forming a real family.

Pete & Ellie Wagner are a couple who flip houses for a living and decide to become foster parents with the goal of starting a family, but the foster children they end up taking in are more than they bargained for. Lizzy, Juan and Lita are the foster children who the Wagners take in and they must learn to trust their new foster parents after dealing with unreliable adults in their past. Karen and Sharon are social workers with different approaches to guiding future adopting parents through the foster care process but with similar goals of a stable family environment for all involved.

Instant Family was a surprisingly emotional look at the ups and downs of the foster care system from the view of the parents-to-be, the kids up for adoption and the social workers matching those who would make functional families. The comedy was not forced and the drama sprung out of situations that touched the heart in a sweet sympathetic way. The cast worked well together and each member of it had time to shine in a manner that made the story feel more believable. Sean Anders directs with a confidence that easily proves just how much of a potential future he has ahead of himself far removed from his past cinematic comedy offerings. The screenplay that the film’s director wrote with John Morris tells an honest story in a way that makes you take notice of the little moments that lead to bigger predicaments. The music by Michael Andrews does an okay job from scene to scene but it is the soundtrack that really helps move the story along and the song at the very end of the motion picture being sung by Isabela Moner has a timely message. This film is a nice dramedy that reminds you how important family can be to our development at any age and that families can consist of a myriad of combinations, but it is the love shared by its members that ultimately hold them all together.  I rate this film a rating of 4 out of 5.

In Theaters

Instant Family


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