Film: We’re The MillersDirector: Rawson Marshall Thurber
I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting a lot from We’re The Millers. It was made by the team behind Dodgeball, which although hilarious, came out almost a decade ago in 2004, and whose style and cast have since been blown out of the water by the Judd Apatow fraternity. However director Rawson Marshall Thurber and his crew have surprisingly created what might be the comedy of the year.
This is Jennifer Aniston’s best film in ages and once again shows that her best comedy roles are when she is crass and rude. Both she and Jason Sudeikis have worked together before in Horrible Bosses a couple of years ago, another example of Aniston’s new-found abilities, and they play off each other really well, trading insults and blows about their various failings. In fact the cast as a whole have great chemistry and Will Poulter who was previously in low budget British film Son of Rambow steals the show as the socially inept son, Kenny.
The films plot is flimsy at best, and features Sudeikis, Aniston, Poulter and pseudo daughter Emma Roberts having to pose as a family in order to smuggle some drugs across the Mexican Border in an RV. Predictably the misfit group actually start to bond throughout and begin to show humility and decency towards each other, which I didn’t really care about, but with Aniston playing a stripper, and Sudeikis as a drug dealer it meant that a whole host of comedic associations and situations arose, and this is the films main strength.
They meet another RV family including Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman, and this is where the film is at its finest. The dynamic between the two couples especially when a potential swinging session is about to start is hilarious. Another, even better scene involving a family kissing session is also superbly done and is the highlight of the movie.
Sure there are a couple of plot holes, and of course the film is predictable, and features one of the lamest cartel bosses of all time, but it doesn’t matter. I must concede that the only thing that drew me in initially from the trailer was seeing Rachel Green running around in her underwear but there really are a lot of good set-pieces and jokes here that the previews really doesn’t do justice to.
This is a little gem of a film, rivalling my two favourite recent comedies of This is The End and 21 Jump Street and although it is ever so slightly too long, it really is one not to be missed. They even use the often under-appreciated gag of using outtakes at the end of the film over the closing credits, just to ensure that they get the very most of the running time.
8/10
