Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.
Should you watch this for free? OK.
Secret ending? Mid credits.
Running time: 107 minutes (~1.75 hours)
“Love the Coopers” is a Christmas-themed comedy drama. It centres around the yearly reunion of a family that’s secretly coming apart at the seams. It stars Steve Martin (Narrator), Alan Arkin (Bucky), John Goodman (Sam Cooper), Ed Helms (Hank), Diane Keaton (Charlotte Cooper), Jake Lacy (Joe), Anthony Mackie (Officer Percy Williams), Amanda Seyfried (Ruby), Marisa Tomei (Emma), and Olivia Wilde (Eleanor). It is rated PG-13.
“Love the Coopers” has amazingly dysfunctional characters that are so myopic that they can’t see past their own spheres to realize that there are actual human beings in the world, namely, the other characters. They are definitely people that you’d never want to meet in real life, but it’s from these very flaws that the film derives it’s funnies. Unfortunately, you’ve also got to tolerate how obnoxious they are to get to the humourous parts.
Highlights
Characters have a comical lack of self-awareness
While the protagonists may be annoying, at least the humour comes from character. They’re so self-absorbed that they hardly notice the funny setups they are in or the faux pas that they commit. This also lands them in many incongruous situations that ultimately result in intentional and unintentional jokes. They may be selfish characters, but at least they tickle you with their selfishness.
Letdowns
Problems are so inconsequential
The characters spend the bulk of the movie in their separate plot lines, whining about the dismal state of their lives. But the fact is that their problems just aren’t that serious. If only the characters can stop tripping over their gargantuan egos for five minutes, their problems would all be easily solved. Instead, they come across as entitled, self-absorbed individuals who have such pointless woes.
Too much talking, not enough showing
The movie is literally a mess of talking heads. It’s scene after scene of different sets characters complaining about the most banal things possible. They don’t show the tension between characters, they tell you about it. Virtually nothing is shown through story. The entire story is just talked out through dialogue. Hiring a single actor as a storyteller would have been more economical and less frustrating. The basic rule of storytelling is “show, not tell,” and the movie is a perfect negative example of that axiom.
Narrator feels like a last minute tool to stitch everything together
Then you have a narrator who appears at random to connect scenes together with voice-overs. It’s an awkward tool that shows a lack of planning and structure, and this narrative technique sticks out like a sore thumb. In a movie this already so boring, any artificial attempts to hold it together are simply too transparent to ignore.
Invisible deus ex machina
The ending is a compete cop out. A family that’s bickering the entire time suddenly puts aside all their differences for no reason other than that there’s only ten minutes left to the film. It ends with a baffling scene of them dancing as the narrator magically explains how everything has gone right for them all. There’s not even a plot device to explain why they’ve all made peace with each other! And to top it all off, the final reveal of the narrator is just… bewildering.
“Love the Coopers” has one of the most irritating movie families around, but still manages to eke a few laughs thanks to their severe short-sightedness.
“Love the Coopers” opens in cinemas 10 December, 2015 (Thursday).
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