Following the failed effort of rebooting The Exorcist franchise with last year’s The Exorcist: Believer, director David Gordon Green returns to a familiar ground, the comedies. Nutcrackers, Green’s latest, is a film about tragedy in the first place. It narrates the story of the Kicklighter brothers, children who lost their parents in a tragic car accident. Suddenly, their uncle, Mike (Ben Stiller), is their legal guardian and is charged with finding a foster home for his nephews. While his late sister Janet (Melissa Gelfin) was a caring and community-guided person, Mike is individualistic and a solitary real estate agent who lives in Chicago and has to live with the children on the farm they live in Ohio. In this turmoil of events, Mike is also negotiating the biggest deal of his career, a renovation project of train roads for the city, while he has to learn how to take care of his nephews, who are strangers to him.
Nutcrackers uses the basic premise of a wrecked house to establish its dramatic and comic threads. The children are homeschooled boys who are not compatible with the standard societal rules of the others. It leads them to act explosively, challenging them to explore their lives how they wish. It is a paradox that needs to work to juxtapose the different realities: the rural life of the brothers and the cosmopolitan one of Mike. This narrative line is necessary to explore the development of the characters. The children need to learn to love and connect with someone else, and the uncle needs to look for a manner to protect the autonomy of the children and comfort them during grief. It is where the film has its best comic moments, and it creates a sense of entropy that adequately serves the story. The farm is a mess, the children are dirty, and they eat uncooked lamen for lunch. It sets the tone for a life of mess, which is easily assignable for both parts: the brothers and the uncle.
Even though the situations are funny and engaging to watch, the script by Leland Douglas lacks organization to create a better sense of fluidity. It features plenty of parallel narratives that do not work cohesively. For example, Mike’s life in Chicago is barely mentioned, and there is no sense of urgency about why he needs desperately to return to that perfect reality. Also, Gretchen (Linda Cardellini), the family services agent responsible for their case, does not feature enough to be more than an assistant in Mike’s journey of discovering himself as a parent. Besides the five central characters, Nutcrackers lacks treatment to care for everyone else. However, it does not prevent the viewer from engaging in the dynamics that the children live within the community. Justice (Homer Janson), the older brother, has a crush on Mia (Maren Heisler), a girl who would take ballet classes with his mother, and he falls in love with her. Besides the interesting elements, Mia is solely the romantic pair to him.
Another element that gets lost among the multitude of ideas is the Christmas segment of the film. It’s just an hourglass for Mike. He must find a family for his nephews before the holidays to return to Chicago. Also, it is an occasion that allows them to bond with his uncle, as they decorate the sofa as a Christmas tree and share exciting presents in the prologue. Nevertheless, Nutcrackers has a festive feeling that delivers enough funny moments to entertain during the holiday break. It has children doing absurd things and adults acting clueless. It has Ben Stiller returning to his role as a leading comedy star after his directorial efforts. And director David Gordon Green‘s pivot back to this genre again reveals his directing talents.
In the end, Nutcrackers is not an innovative comedy in any aspect. However, the festive and fun narrative delivers a family film about connecting with people and bonding with your family. Its funny and engaging four children’s stars are responsible for the absurdity and the laughs in a story that discusses family, grief, ambition, and loss. It is a good option for the holidays.
Nutcrackers is now streaming on Hulu.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch, on the Hulu site.
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