Pop quiz: When was the last time you saw a good Jennifer Aniston movie? Still thinking? Well, if you have come to the conclusion that your answer is “maybe never” then you and I are in complete agreement. If you take a quick look at her filmography, you’ll see it is littered with movies that you either completely forgot about or never saw. Sure, there are a few decent ones in there, but none that you would say she absolutely carried. Give her credit though; she’s managed to parlay her run on Friends into twenty years of relevancy. Her latest movie, We’re the Millers, falls right in line with her others. It’s not particularly good, and whatever merits it does possess, comes about because of the work of her cast mates.
The plot of the movie finds burnout drug dealer David Clark (Jason Sudeikis) in a bind and forced to make a drug smuggling run to Mexico at the behest of Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms). In an effort to blend in, he bribes a stripper (Jennifer Aniston), a runaway (Emma Roberts), and a geek from his building (Will Poulter) to pose as his family. Together they try to drive a Winnebago loaded with marijuana across the border and eventually into Colorado.
In terms of the creative team, there’s not too much to say for director Rawson Marshall Thurber and writers Bob Fisher and Steve Faber. This film is exactly what you would think it would be in regards to tone and direction – a clear attempt to cash in on some of the rated-R comedic success that Sudeikis has achieved in Horrible Bosses and Hall Pass. The jokes are crude and only half of them hit, but there’s just enough to keep you going through the mediocre plot until its unraveling in the third act.
As for the acting, here’s how each of the Millers fared:
Jennifer Aniston may have received top billing, but Jason Sudeikis is the star of this movie. Putting aside the fact that Sudeikis is rumored to be a very difficult Hollywood personality (almost on par with Denzel Washington and Tommy Lee Jones), he has managed to carve out a decent niche beyond SNL in these sorts of rated-R comedies. In We’re the Millers, his merits and deficiencies are on full display. First and foremost, he’s funny in a sarcastic douchebaggery kind of way and that makes his emotive turn in the last act play better. But when it comes to character development, you get a stark reminder that he is way more of a comedian than he is an actor. Still, most of the laughs from this film come from him so he gets a check in the plus column.
Unfortunately, Jennifer Aniston as usual doesn’t hold up her end of the bargain. As the proverbial stripper with a good heart, Aniston plays some iteration of the same character she has played for the past twenty years. This time out, she is a more bitter, a bit more racy, and not nearly as funny. The problem here is that she is supposed to be the emotional center of this film and one of the catalysts for Sudeikis’ emotional growth, but it just doesn’t play because Aniston’s onscreen characters are so difficult to root for. In fact, her best contribution is to the film is not even in the movie itself; its her awkward reaction during an outtake from the gag reel.
Picking up the slack for Aniston in this movie is Will Poulter as Kenny, Sudeikis’ geeky faux son. I haven’t seen Poulter in anything else, but he really nails the whole affable but awkward vibe necessary to set up some of his bigger gags. You’ve probably seen the scene with him singing Waterfalls by TLC ad nauseum in every trailer and commercial, but he has plenty of other good moments in the movie and one or two over-the-top sight gags.
Last and certainly the least of the Millers clan is Emma Roberts as Casey. If I ever there was someone who absolutely looked like they didn’t want to be in a movie, it would have to be Roberts in this one. In some ways, this helps her performance because her character is supposed to come off as cynical and apathetic, but Roberts brings nothing to this movie. From start to finish, she is a black hole on screen and adds no humor or hijinks to the proceedings.
Conversely, the supporting cast is good. Nick Offerman and Kathryn Hahn are hilarious as the Fitzgeralds and add a pump a good amount of jokes into the mix in very limited screen time and Tomer Sisley and Matthew Willig are satisfactory as the after-thought heavies chasing the Millers across the border. If there is a weak link amongst the supporting players, it has to be Ed Helms who is way over-the-top (in a bad way) as a suburban drug kingpin and stands as a textbook example of bad stunt casting.
In a lot of ways, this movie reminds me of The Heat starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in that there are some genuinely funny moments but the connective tissue between those scenes just isn’t robust enough. It’s one of those films that telegraphs the ending right from the outset so without a consistent flow of laugh inducing gags, the whole thing feels a bit thin. So for me, We’re the Millers is a Netflix movie. It will almost moderately entertain you for two thirds of its running time and then you’ll never think about it again. Keep in mind that the more you spend on this one in terms of time and effort, the less you will enjoy it, so see it when you see it or see it not at all.
Standout Performance: Jason Sudeikis for his haircut scene. Hilarious.
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