We're the Millers

If there's anything worse than a comedy that is soft and limp, it's a comedy that starts out sharp and funny, and gradually goes soft and limp.  Case in point: We're the Millers.  For the first half hour or so, I was having fun, and there were a number of clever lines that caught me off guard.  But then, the movie just kind of went on autopilot.  It's a tell tale sign when you have the characters accomplish their goal about 45 minutes into the film, and then spend the rest of the running time just having random encounters in a vain attempt to pad out the film.

The main character is a small-time drug dealer named David Clark.  He's played by Jason Sudekis, who just seems wrong for the role.  For a character like this - a sarcastic guy with a short fuse, you need a Bill Murray-type.  Early on in the film, David is mugged by some street punks who run off with his money.  Now he finds himself in debt to some $40,000 to his supplier, Brad Gurlinger (Ed Helms), who doesn't sound or talk like your typical drug kingpin.  He's kind of like the goofy nerd David used to know in school, who just somehow happened to fall into the illegal drug business, and was lucky enough to get to the top.  Brad makes David an offer to wipe away the debt - travel to Mexico and smuggle over some high grade weed.  Realizing that vacationing families have an easier time making it over the border, David decides to rent an RV, and create a fake family, going by the name of the Millers.  His wife is portrayed by a local stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston), and his kids are played by a teenage runaway girl (Emma Roberts), and a lonely geeky kid from David's apartment building whose mom went out for drinks one week ago, and hasn't come back yet (Will Poulter).

The first half of the movie, where we're introduced to these characters and they concoct the scheme to make up a fake family, is where I found it the funniest.  There were plenty of sharp one liners, and the movie seemed to be confident in where it was going.  But, once the main characters arrive in Mexico, it's almost as if all inspiration left the four credited screenwriters.  Or, maybe there was a battle for control over the script.  That would explain the awkward tone of the film, which seems to go from raunchy and rude, to sweet and sentimental at the drop of a hat.  I fear this is starting to become a trend.  Remember Identity Thief from earlier this year?  That was the movie that opened with projectile vomiting jokes, and ended with lengthy, teary-eyed monologues about love and friendship.  It's almost like screenwriters are afraid to be crude, and feel they have to apologize for it by throwing in a lot of forced sentiment in the third act.  I prefer it when comedies go for broke, instead of when they hit me over the head with family values.

Even when the movie is aiming for shock value and laughs, We're the Millers never seems to try hard enough.  Either that, or it cops out completely.  A good example would be when the main characters are driving through Mexico, and are pulled over by a cop.  He wants a bribe, and since he just happens to be gay, he wants either David or the dorky kid posing as his son to pleasure him in order to have the officer look the other way.  The movie builds up this awkward and embarrassing situation, but then it backs out at the very end, finding a cheap way to resolve it all.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to see what the scene was leading up to.  But, the way it avoids the situation just seems cheap.  It's obvious that the writers didn't know how to get these characters out of the situation, or how to make it funny.  The same thing seems to happen later on in the film when David and Rose have a nighttime run-in with a friendly couple traveling across Mexico who want to explore their sexuality.  The build up seems funny, but the outcome is rushed and unsatisfying.

I even have to wonder if there was enough material here to work with from the start.  The characters obtain the drugs they're supposed to smuggle out of Mexico long before the one hour mark, so the rest of the movie is spent with them being chased by violent drug lords, having encounters with random weirdos they meet along the way, and family bonding scenes.  You can almost see the plot stretching itself thin, so it can avoid having the characters reaching their destination sooner than they have to.  I have no doubt that a funny script could be written with these ideas, but it would have to be one that doesn't hold back.  This one frequently seems to be limiting itself, or afraid to truly be as crazy as it could have been.

We're the Millers starts out with a lot of promise, only to spread itself too thin.  The cast is game, and there are some laughs to be had, but not enough to fill a whole running time.  It's the kind of movie that won't exactly hurt anyone's career, but it's not going to do a lot to improve it either.  As the film wound down to its happy conclusion, I started to wish I could go back to the beginning, when these characters seemed a lot brighter and funnier.

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