Directed by Ross Katz. Dp was Vanja Cernjul.
'Adult Beginners' is a film of
amaranthine mediocrity. It starts with a commercial for the business our lead Jake has started, an investment group I believe. The commercial is like a microcosm for the whole film. It feels like it should be funny, but the ad never ventures enough to the realm of satire to induce a laugh.
'Adult Beginners' needed someone (the DP, the editor, the writers) to decide the mood of the film. I can't tell if I'm supposed to laugh at these characters or feel bad for them. You have a group of actors, most veterans of 'The League', who are accomplished comedians, but somehow the comedy all falls flat. And the stuff that passed for jokes...well take a look below as Jake runs around holding the baby's training toilet to his butt so he can use the bathroom and chase the kid around at the same time.
Anyone who has seen Kroll's comedy act knows what a master he is at characters. Somehow the writers were able to create a character so bland and boring, even Kroll couldn't make him interesting. Half the time he seems to be trying to satirize him, the other half he's playing Jake straight. And I would say some of the blame falls on the camerawork which never informs the scenes. The one above is just a long shot of a disgusting chase scene. Instead of feeling like comedy it feels like documentary.
And again in the scene above we have the same issue. Jake and Justine are having a chat with their father over the computer. (BTW they do this when the grand-kid is sleeping. It's complete idiocy. Anyone who has kids can tell you their parents have NO INTEREST in talking to anyone but the grand-kids. And when your parents do talk to you, it's about the grand-kids. So why would they call when the kid is asleep?) I believe the scene is supposed to be funny, the dad is shirtless with his new wife. He shows little interest in Jake and how he is doing. But instead of showing us why this is awkward, Jake just keeps telling us it's awkward, he keeps telling us the dad doesn't care about him. Adding to the bad dialogue we just cut back and forth between shots of the computer screen and long shots of these two. You never get the feeling there's a real conversation going on. It feels more like two people making fun of pictures of an old man online, a widow on top of it. Also, no new information is
gleamed from this sequence. It goes forever and we learn nothing useful about the characters.
Oh, and this scene above. The 'let's mock people we went to high school with' scene. The movie plays like an anthology of scenes rejected from 'The Office'.
But few movies are irredeemable.This was a nice piece of camerawork as Jake takes an emergency call from his family. We see the shift in priorities as his workmates are out of focus in the background. It would mean more if we as an audience had anything invested in him getting this job. Or had seen him work hard to get to where he was. All we get is a quick kudos from the boss which is supposed to lend weight to the decision. It does not.
'Adult Beginners' fails on almost every level to be a success movie. Not recommended.
