The Steps

I can't believe that I missed this one in the theatres. I watched it today & thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably because my husband & I had a blended family of 8 children. It was interesting to see the dynamics of the adult children and several scenes made me laugh. Some serious subject matter & not recommended for younger children.

The plot of the movie sounded like it could have real potential to be a great comedy. Plus there was a reasonable cast. However...the movie quickly degenerated into a dialogue rife with f-bombs and other filth that is getting more irritating with each movie. Like most "comedy/dramas" the comedy is unfortunately only sporadic and tries to go for cheap laughs with vulgarity instead of crisp writing. On top of this, there is absolutely no way that a social worker would ever trust this mess of a family with a precious little child. This is an unfortunate mess of bad writing propped up by high reviews that are definitely unwarranted and cheapen the integrity of IMDB.

I watched The Steps at Cineplex on Friday night. OMG it was so good!!! Jason Ritter plays this New York business dude who was fired, but pretends he's still got a job. Emannuelle Chriqui (from Entourage) is his sister who was a bit like me when I was in my 20s! They head up to northern Ontario to meet their new step mother and step siblings and the sh*t starts to happen. I really loved everything about this movie. It was funny, and charming, and really smart. Part way through I realized there was real emotional depth at work. It crept up on me, and I really started to feel the pain from these characters. It just felt like a lot of the people I grew up with. I went with my guy and he really loved it too. 10 out of 10!!!! So good, check it out. You will love it!!!

A newly blended family of adult children each with their own peculiarities, fears and resentments and locked away in an isolated house in Northern Ontario…what could go wrong? It's a great set up to explore family dynamics, buried emotional scars, forgiveness, isolation and the inherent comedy that exists in all families. If your family isn't laughing at itself half the time you all still have a ton of work to do. That is the message that I took away from this film

The Steps is funny, charming and feels authentic, as if the writer / director Andrew Currie must of lived some iteration or version of this story. It has a kind of idiosyncratic lightness to it, but the comedy is grounded by serious themes and emotions. Andrew Currie has such command of the craft of directing that you kind of become a silent sibling in the corner and let it all unfold in front of you.

What a lovely movie but we all know that a government soulless automaton social worker would never allow that couple to adopt, EVER! Only a PC couple (PC people hide all their sins, they are great actors) would be allowed to adopt, period! For that reason and that reason alone I rated the movie a 9 instead of a 10. I hate unreality, basically a fairy tale, even when the fairy tale is heartrending and wistfully enjoyed with the occasional tear. Every performance in this movie was spot on, every performance interesting and unique. James Brolin was excellent and it's good to see that Christine Lahti is still fetching, quite lovely actually, despite being in her mid-sixties, she is very appealing. Christine plays a woman who should be every man's desire, a team player who puts the ones she loves first despite the personal cost to herself plus there is the hot factor. This is a thoroughly enjoyable vehicle and all should give it a go despite the departure from today's reality, but isn't that what movies do?