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Dome Pondering Movie Review: Men, Women & Children (2014)

What is it about? 

A group of high school teenagers and their parents deal with the ramifications of technology in their lives, and how it has affected their ability to communicate effectively. 

Who is in it? 

Adam Sandler - Don Truby

Jennifer Garner - Patricia Beltmeyer

Rosemarie DeWitt - Helen Truby

Judy Greer - Donna Clint

Favorite Scene: 

After being asked about their experience with and of 9/11, Don Truby states that such an event was the reason they got cell phones, to stay connected with their loved ones. Though, technology did the complete opposite for him and his family. 

Favorite Quote:

"Like it or not, for the moment The Earth is where we make our stand"

Review: 

Men, Women, & Children really brings to a light an excellent shift in our society when it comes to communication, and our dependence on the internet and technology for that communication. Ironically, at times, we don't use the advances to their capabilities and we wind up lessening our intended communication. The film does a great job of sparking the thought process on such a concept in our society, and the aforementioned is what I pulled away from it. 

However, while the film does touch base on some real aspects that plague us such as sexting, sensationalizing our selves, pornography, and the obvious lack of communication technology is indeed providing, the film goes about it in a head-on sort of way, but ends up generalizing it in the end. None of the characters ever come to grips or understand the positioning of their enslavement to technology. And if that was the intention, it just falls flat. 

The talent is pretty decent, but the truly eye-opening part of this film is indeed the bubbles and graphics of the images everyone is consuming daily. A great scene is when Ensel Elgort's character, Tim Mooney, walks into school with everyone on their phones in between classes. 

All in all, Men Women & Children does a great job of introducing the topic at hand, but sort of falls flat in driving the message home throughout the film. It felt very open and honest at the beginning, but eventually fizzled out to the point of feeling like a lecture. 

If you're interested in sparking some thoughts, give it a watch. 

Grade: 2.75/5
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