Adult Beginners

The story background seems like another classic of s man rebuilding his life after a sudden loss. The main focus on the family and relationship drama feels really nice. The way the movie's script depicts the many small things happening in Jake's life is really nice that it feels so subtle and smooth. The movie literally didn't have any increase or decrease in mood, and just dominantly play on a single track of story development. The smaller things seem unpredictable, although their consequences seem so very predictable once they have come on-screen. The acting overall is quite a good bit. Rose Byrne's acting still feels okay although the character doesn't really need much more development. Nick Kroll really gets the comedy side nicely, just at the right portion. Bobby Cannavale's acting really balances the whole set.

Jake (Nick Kroll) screws up a business deal and loses lots of money. His investors are angry. He leaves NYC and goes back to the family home. His sister Justine (Rose Byrne) is pregnant and puts him to work babysitting his nephew Teddy. Her husband Danny (Bobby Cannavale) is fixing up the home for sale. She signs Jake up with Teddy in a swim class for mommy and kid. Jake suspects that Danny is cheating with the real estate agent.

Rose Byrne is utterly charming. Bobby Cannavale is a great suburban dad. Nick Kroll is fine for this role although his big screen charisma is still in doubt. The material feels lighter than it could have been. The drama is not pushed that hard. There is one good moment when Justine downplays something which actually elevates the material. There are a couple of those scenes and the really endearing Byrne which make this better than nice.

Rushed resolution takes away from well-acted intelligently written comedy.

I really enjoyed Adult Beginners for about the first hour. I was surprised at its score and reception because it was one of the more realistic dramedies about family life and adulthood I've seen in recent memory. The characters felt real, the chemistry was phenomenal, I cared about what was happening, and it was nice to see Nick Kroll playing the straight everyman for once. As great as Kroll was, he didn't quite carry the movie as much as the supporting cast did. Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale are fantastic as Kroll's sister and her husband (and their chemistry is palpable, given they're a couple in real life), and they play off Kroll's deadpan humor with sincerity and ease. It was great to see Kroll's character having to redo his entire life, then crashing his sister's place and having to adjust to this family-centered lifestyle. It was honest and heartfelt, and there are moments between Kroll and Cannavale (who plays the brother-in-law) that are genuinely deep and thought provoking. I wanted more of that.

The humor is intermittent. It's not really a laugh-out-loud comedy despite what you might think with this cast. It's far more subdued and dramatic than a typical Nick Kroll vehicle, and it worked. For a while, anyway. The last 30 minutes of this movie felt like the writers tried to tie the movie up in a pretty pink bow as quickly as possible and call it a day. It was so rushed and half-hearted, leaving interesting subplots by the wayside and throwing this faux happily-ever-after ending that completely detracts from the overall tone. Everything is well-paced and subtle before then, taking you along for the ride and keeping you strapped in for every awkward situation or heartfelt moment, but the ending makes it all for nothing. It's like, "That's it? What happened to everything else I just saw?" The authenticity went out the window.

Having said that, Adult Beginners is very relatable. These feel like real people going through real life crises, and each of the main characters have depth and character flaws that you want to be explored. Some of them are, some aren't. Overall though, I enjoyed this movie for what it was, and if you don't mind a lame ending, I think it's definitely worth a watch.

Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale have been dating since 2012 and have made three films together in that time. She's the Australian beauty known for the "X-Men" and "Insidious" films, as well as 2014's "Neighbors" and 2011's "Bridesmaids". He's the tall, dark and handsome actor who played Al Pacino's estranged son in "Danny Collins" (2015), Cate Blanchett's would-be suitor in "Blue Jasmine" (2011) and did a season each of "Nurse Jackie" and "Boardwalk Empire". Together, Byrne and Cannavale have made 2014's "Annie" and 2015's spring releases "Adult Beginners" and "Spy". Now, you may be wondering why I've devoted the opening paragraph of my review of "Adult Beginners" (R, 1:30) to the relationship between two of the movie's stars. Well, it's because that's the most interesting thing about this movie. Nick Kroll (who has had a recurring role on "Parks and Recreation" and has his own show on Comedy Central) came up with the story, and stars in "Adult Beginners" as Jake, a self-centered tech guru whose career gets off track, leading him to move in with his sister, Justine (Byrne) and her husband, Danny (Cannavale). Justine, who's expecting her second child, and Danny, who's building the young family a new home, let Jake earn his keep (and saves them some money) by providing day care for their 3-year-old son, Teddy (played by twins Caleb and Matthew Paddock). Jake is predictably inept at taking care of the lad, but he isn't the only adult in the film with an underdeveloped sense of self. Along with Jake, Justine and Danny also feel and act like overgrown kids, or… adult beginners.

The film's title actually refers to the fact that Jake and Justine never learned to swim, but they end up taking little Teddy to a swim class taught by Miss Jenn (Jane Krakowski), who encourages them to take an adult beginners swim class. Other familiar faces that pop up in minor roles include Josh Charles ("The Good Wife") as Jake's prospective employer, Joel McHale ("Community") as Jake's shallow best friend and Bobby Moynihan ("SNL"), who plays a socially awkward former high school classmate of Jake's. After riding a pretty steep learning curve, and with the help of fellow nanny, Blanca (Paula Garcés), Jake starts to get the hang of being Teddy's nanny, but being in his sister's home for a period of months exposes him to some family drama that he would rather have avoided, but has to deal with.

"Adult Beginners" wants to be a poignant reflection on what it means to be an adult, and make us laugh in the process. It fails on both counts. The conversations and scenes meant to deliver the movie's message are few, far between and not really integral to the other goings-on. The jokes are not few and far between, but they're also not very funny. The cast member who comes closest to amusing is Moynihan, but only in two brief scenes. The three main adult characters are unsympathetic and the actors playing them are uncharismatic. Cannavale, who has done some great work over the past couple years, unconvincingly bounces back and forth between clueless and angry. Byrne, whose career has had as many misses as hits, was funnier in "Neighbors" – and that ain't saying much. Kroll sleepwalks through his role, a self-absorbed sad-sack, a la Adam Sandler, but not as entertaining. McHale and Krakowski could have brightened things up a bit, but instead are relegated to thankless roles that make almost no use of their considerable comedic talents.

The scenes depicting Jake's struggles with his new position as glorified babysitter are uninspired and the other gags involving kids aren't only unfunny, they're offensive, that is, unless you find pregnant women getting drunk, couples having sex while toddlers are left to fend for themselves and frequent swearing in front of small children to be humorous. And speaking of the language in this movie, I'm no prude and I think that some well-placed cussing can even be pretty funny, but this script drops f-bombs and other colorful words like they're going out of style. The foul language doesn't advance the plot, doesn't make the movie any funnier and seems to have pointlessly saddled this film with an unnecessarily restrictive MPAA rating. This film gives us too little of what could have made it entertaining, too much of what distracted from its potential and makes me think the title would be better used to describe the people who made this movie. "Adult Beginners" gets a "D".