When you market a film, you really have to do your best to convey the films best side. Sometimes, that doesn’t work. For a while, the clips and trailers for Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (which we will call Alexander for the sake of my typing fingers,) didn’t shed much grand light onto the film. It just looked sloppy, a hammy family film where the hilarity comes from slapstick events that happen in concession. The ruthless succession of clips hammered home the sickening bile of toilet humour based gags that vomited jokes out rather than thinking cleverly and only to amuse the kids. I went into the film with low expectations thanks to the wrongly amount of clips released, no matter how successful the book it was based upon was or the legion of fans willing to see it.
And I came out pleasantly surprised.
Happily eating my words, Alexander is a surprising treat for – not only families – but for anyone. One of the many reasons it works so well is because it is actually pretty funny. That slapstick/toilet humour that I previously spoke about is entangled with a realistic vein that encourages the laughs, rather than demanding it. Intersparsed with these idyllic and sincere moments of family life, the film jovially handles the comedy, as outrageously ridiculous as it may seem. It’s absorbing comedy, that kind of “I’ve had those days” humanity films that feels fresh, rather than a National Lampoon’s knock off. You’ll chortle and chuckle, happily so.
There is a lot of genuinely great moments that will leave you and the rest of your family beaming. Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is warming. Though not excellent – by no means is this the best film of the year or anywhere near the levels of animated Disney movies (that being said, Disney Live Action rarely is) – but it has a soul that makes it watchable. Certainly giving a different spin in this time filled of doom and gloom, this latest treat is enough to heat you over the Winter months.
Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is out October 24th