Film review and film summary “Nutcracker” (2024)

There are a number of movie plots that are so inherently appealing that filmmakers don’t have to fulfill their obligation to produce something worth watching. “The run-down former hotshot who gets one last chance at redemption” is one of them. “A group of losers who learn a new skill and become unlikely winners” is another. Put the two together and you probably get 90% of all sports movies. Another on the list reads: “Curmudgeon, who never wanted to be a parent, is forced to become one, and it turns out he has no problem with it.”

And that’s “Nutcracker” with Ben Stiller as a workaholic single Chicagoan who ends up having to play father to a group of young, orphaned brothers.

“The Nutcracker” was written and directed by David Gordon Green, who made his name in American cinema with two sensitive, low-budget dramas about people who could actually exist (“George Washington” and “All the Real Girls”) and then made an unexpected (for fans) left-wing turn into crazy comedies with films like “Pineapple Express” and “Your Highness.” “Nutcrackers” integrates the two modes, sets the action in a recognizably real version of the American Midwest (suburbs of Ohio) and is based on classic films with a seemingly very unsuitable candidate for parenthood (“Uncle Buck” and the various iterations). from “The Bad News”) The bears are never far away in the film) and push the misunderstandings and slapstick situations to the point of ridiculousness.

The Kicklighter boys are a quartet consisting of 12-year-old Justice (Homer Janson), 10-year-old Junior (Ulysses Janson), and 8-year-old twins Samuel and Simon (Atlas and Arlo Janson). Stiller’s character Michael races into town in a yellow Porsche to complete paperwork and place the siblings, his nephews, into foster care after they lose their parents in a car accident. Michael is supposed to be in Chicago putting the finishing touches on a huge real estate deal. The Kicklighter boys used to be so-called “juvenile delinquents” who are now referred to as “at-risk youth.” They are introduced breaking into a fairground and manipulating one of the rides.

Mike makes it clear that he only cares about Mike, which means getting out of there as quickly as possible without any messy entanglements with human emotions like empathy. But you know how things have to go: When push comes to shove and Mike has to choose, he’ll make the right choice, because that’s the kind of movie it is: heartwarming, but not too mushy. There’s also a hint of romance in the form of a foster agent named Gretchen (Linda Cardellini), who tugs at the hero’s conscience after things don’t work out with his assigned foster family.

Stiller has become a deeper actor with age, and he’s perfect here: you know he’s got a good soul because this is a comedy, not a dark one, but he keeps you guessing. Casting The Kicklighters with the real Janson brothers probably went a long way toward conveying the idea that these guys are actually related, and Green, always a low-key wizard with actors, puts the emphasis on that the rhythms of performance above all else, moving the film according to the energy of the actors and allowing for digressions that may not always advance the plot but feel like a small touch of life.

On Hulu November 29th.