Directed by: Sean Anders
Written by: Sean Anders, John Morris
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, Isabela Moner
Are you looking for a movie that will make you cry one minute then laugh the next? Well Instant Family is the perfect movie for you! Instant Family stars Mark Wahlberg (Ted, Patriots Day) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Insidious) as Pete and Ellie, a couple who flips houses for a living (like Chip and Joanna Gaines from that show on HGTV “Fixer Upper”).
Pete and Ellie have just acquired a new dump to fix up that’s perfect for a family, but as Ellie’s sister points out, Pete and Ellie will NEVER have children so they’ll just fix up that house and sell it to some other family and move on. This makes Ellie feel like there is something missing from their life, so she starts thinking about fostering a child. She looks into it on a website that has all these children up for adoption. And it’s really kind of sad, because it’s like puppies and kittens wanting to be adopted but it’s CHILDREN.
After Pete looks at the website (which is purposely written to make you want to adopt all the children and also make you cry), Ellie and Pete decide to look into fostering a child. They attend an informational session, because there is a class you have to take in order to foster a child. The class sessions turn into group therapy, and we get to know the other parents and their tribulations throughout the process as well which is also interesting.
While at an event, that’s like a meet and greet to get to know children that are up for adoption, Pete and Ellie encounter Lizzy (Isabela Moner), a teenager with attitude to spare. Not ones to shy away from a challenge, Pete and Ellie decide to try to foster her, and find out that she has two younger siblings, Juan (Gustavo Quiroz) and Lita (Julianna Gamiz).
The siblings are in foster care, because their mother is in jail for drugs. Lizzy misses her real mom, but Juan and Lita are too young to really remember her. After some back and forth, the children move into Pete and Ellie’s home (not the one they are renovating but the home they live in).
At first, things seem to be ok. Not amazing but the rest of the foster parents in the group referred to it as “the honeymoon phase.” The children get along with their new foster parents for a few weeks, until the Christmas Dinner Disaster. Then everything goes to hell. It just gets worse from there.
Some things were hilarious, some things were tragic, and some things were sad. Pete and Ellie realize they are in over their heads, and it all leads up to the reappearance of the children’s real mother, because she’s been released from jail and she wants her children back – really, who didn’t see that coming?
Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro were fantastic as the leaders of the foster group Karen and Sharon. They played off each other really well. I also enjoyed Margo Martindale as Grandma Sandy (Pete’s mother) and Julie Hagerty as Jan (Ellie’s mother). I learned a lot about the fostering process from this movie. Instant Family was a roller-coaster of emotions. Bring your tissues, because you’ll need them!!
