Men, Women & Children (film)

Men, Women & Children is a 2014 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written with Erin Cressida Wilson, based on a novel of the same name written by Chad Kultgen that deals with online addiction. The film stars Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever and Timothée Chalamet.

Men, Women & Children
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJason Reitman
Screenplay byJason Reitman
Erin Cressida Wilson
Based onMen, Women & Children
by Chad Kultgen
Produced byJason Reitman
Helen Estabrook
StarringRosemarie DeWitt
Jennifer Garner
Judy Greer
Dean Norris
Adam Sandler
CinematographyEric Steelberg
Edited byDana E. Glauberman
Music byStephen Wilkinson
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
  • September 6, 2014 (2014-09-06) (TIFF)
  • October 1, 2014 (2014-10-01) (United States)
Running time
119 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million
Box office$2.2 million[2]

The film premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2014.[3] The film was released on October 1, 2014, by Paramount Pictures.[4]

Plot

Set in a small town in Texas, this film follows several teens and their parents as they struggle in today's technology-obsessed world. Their communication, self-images and relationships are all affected by the technological age, compounding the usual social difficulties people already encounter. These are video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame hunting, and the massive abundance of illicit material available on the internet. Each character and relationship are put to the test.

Donald and Helen Truby are a sexually dissatisfied married couple. She starts having multiple affairs through the social media website Ashley Madison, and he regularly sees escorts through another site. Donald accidentally catches sight of his wife's website, then shows up where she's meeting her latest affair. In a discussion the day after this discovery, both admit to having indiscretions and agree to ignore they ever happened.

The Trubys' teenage son Chris, a football player, is aroused by online material not deemed "normal" by society. Hoping to have arousal by "traditional means", Chris tries to date cheerleader and classmate Hannah. However, as they start to initiate sex, he fails to become aroused, so she tells everyone they did anyway and then breaks up with him.

Hannah and her mother Joan come across auditions for a television series one day in the mall. She's ecstatic as her dream is to become famous, but because her mom had showcased her very provocatively on her website, Hannah is disqualified for the show. Later on, Joan takes the website down, realizing her daughter's activity on the site is damaging to Hannah.

Tim, a former football player quits to play a MMORPG following his parents' divorce. He gains a reason for living after dating the introverted Brandy Beltmeyer, who expresses herself on a secret Tumblr account. The account and Tim's online conversations are discovered by her overprotective mother Patricia, who confiscates her daughter's online privileges.

Tim's father Kent, noticing lewd comments about a Facebook picture of Tim's mother on his game, confronts him and states she abandoned both of them. He deletes the game and demands he play football next year, causing him to get down. Patricia then poses as Brandy and messages to Tim that she is uninterested. However, this makes Tim overdose on his antidepressants and nearly die, which makes Patricia realise her monitoring has gone too far, and deactivates the surveillance device she used to monitor Brandy.

Joan goes to content awareness meetings run by Patricia to learn about what is legally allowed on her daughter's website. There she meets Kent Mooney (Tim's dad who has been distant from him since the separation), and starts a relationship with him. After Joan informs him about the website, he initially wants to end the relationship. However, after reconciling with Tim and realizing how hard being a single parent is, Kent reconnects with her.

Hannah's co-cheerleader Allison Doss has been starving herself for months over the summer, with the support of an on-line group. Brandon Lender, a football player who she's had a crush on for years, finally notices her. Excited, she secretly shares her first kiss with him, and later sex on his insistance and he treats it casually and with disinterest. Allison ends up with an ectopic pregnancy, although she miscarries a short time later. Rushed to the hospital, both she and her parents learn about it. Brandon's only concerned about others discovering they had sex. Realizing how selfish he is, she throws a rock through his window in the middle of the night.

We are left with the overall message that humans should remember to be kind to one another.

Cast

Production

By September 4, 2013, Jason Reitman had cast Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt and Jennifer Garner in the lead roles.[6] By December 16, Emma Thompson, Judy Greer and Dean Norris were cast.[5] The young cast includes Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, Elena Kampouris, Travis Tope, Katherine Hughes, Olivia Crocicchia, and Timothée Chalamet.[7] Other stars are David Denman, Jason Douglas, Dennis Haysbert, Shane Lynch, and J. K. Simmons.[8] Will Peltz also joined the cast, on December 17.[9] Principal photography began on December 16, 2013, in and around Austin, Texas.[7][8]

Reception

Box office

Men, Women & Children premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2014.[10] The film opened in limited release on October 1, 2014 in 17 theaters and grossed $48,024 with an average of $2,825 per theater and ranking #48 at the box office. In its wide release on October 17 in 608 theaters the film grossed $306,367 with an average of $504 per theater and ranking #23, making it the fifth lowest opening in a release of 600 theaters or more.[11] The film ultimately earned $705,908 in the United States and $1,534,627 internationally for a total of $2,240,535 worldwide, well below its $16 million production budget.[2]

Critical response

The film received a "rotten" score of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 139 reviews with an average rating of 4.90/10. The critical consensus states: "Men, Women & Children is timely, but director Jason Reitman's overbearing approach to its themes blunts the movie's impact."[12] The film also has a score of 38 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[13] Film critic Robbie Collin felt Men, Women & Children "played like a spoof" with others agreeing the film was "mawkish and clichéd".[14]

References
  1. "Men, Women & Children (15)". British Board of Film Classification. September 19, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  2. "Men, Women & Children (2014)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  3. "Toronto Film Festival Lineup". Variety. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
  4. Lee, Ashley (September 18, 2014). "Jennifer Garner Is Way Too Paranoid of Social Media in 'Men, Women & Children' Trailer". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  5. Ford, Rebecca (December 16, 2013). "Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women & Children' Adds Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Dean Norris". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  6. "Toronto: Jason Reitman Lining Up His Next Film". The Hollywood Reporter. September 4, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  7. Billington, Alex (December 16, 2013). "Jason Reitman's Next Film 'Men, Women & Children' Begins Shooting". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  8. "Production Begins on Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children" (Press release). Paramount Pictures via ComingSoon.net. December 16, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  9. Kroll, Justin (December 17, 2013). "Will Peltz Joins Cast of Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women & Children'". Variety. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  10. "Early Buzz: Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children [TIFF 2014] - /Film". Slashfilm. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  11. "Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women and Children' Takes Box-Office Bellyflop - TheWrap". TheWrap. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
  12. "Men, Women & Children". Rotten Tomatoes (Fandango). Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  13. "Men, Women & Children". Metacritic (CBS Interactive). Retrieved October 17, 2014.
  14. Collin, Robbie (December 5, 2014). "Men, Women & Children, review: 'plays like a spoof'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
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