Watch Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with a cynical eye — or at least with the eye that occasionally catches sight of the memes and comments that invade our Twitter and Facebook feeds — and you might reasonably be visited by the urge to think, “white people’s problems.”
After all, the Coopers — the family upon which all sorts of amusingly unpleasant things descend in a brief 81-minute running time — have it pretty good. So good, in fact, that they may be unrecognizable to many of the families for whom this movie — based on the Judith Viorst children's book — is intended as escapist entertainment. They live in a beautiful two-story home in an immaculate neighborhood. The father, though unemployed at the moment, is an astro-engineer, so he won’t stay off the market long; he’s even got an interview for a software development gig at a gaming company. And mom is up for VP with a book publisher; her main struggle is trying to please her demanding boss, played by Megan Mullally.
Even though Dad isn’t working, he gets to take care of their infant son Trevor and be admired as the portmanteau "Fommy" in the mommy/baby exercise class they attend. The Coopers have a family cheer and aspire to “positivity,” which seems to be working out for them, because no matter how horribly terrible things go during the film’s very bad day, they don’t suffer so much as fret, get annoyed, and rush around.
But it's this absurdity that makes Alexander the kind of lively, harmless fun that should satisfy the elementary-school set it's aimed at. When we first meet Alexander Cooper, who's about to turn 12, he's having what he thinks is a bad day: No one wants to attend his birthday party because all his friends are going to a rival cool kids' party; he gets gum in his hair; he's made fun of on social media; and he's denied the chance to write a book report on his beloved Australia.
So late one night, as he's about to blow out the candle on a personal birthday sundae, Alexander wishes that his family could know what it's like to have a bad day. The next morning, his wish seems to come true. Mom (Jennifer Garner) goes from hero to scapegoat when a planned book reading featuring Dick Van Dyke becomes a PR disaster. Dad (Steve Carell) has to bring Trevor along to his interview and doesn't balance the two responsibilities very well. Big sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) wakes up with a cold that threatens to ruin her chance to star as Peter Pan in the school play scheduled for the afternoon. Brother Anthony, looking forward to his junior prom, has to deal with a single zit on his forehead, a tuxedo that looks like a leftover from Dumb and Dumber, and a shallow girlfriend (Bella Thorne) who acts like the only truly horrible, terrible thing in the film.
You can see the pratfalls coming well before they hit the ground. The mishaps are predictable and predictably delivered, and hardly dire. Many know from experience how tough the going can really get when only one parent is working or one of your kids gets suspended from school. Or when your car gets totaled. Not for the Coopers — these are merely some entertainingly trying times meant to test their ability to stay chirpy. Even their minivan, with its muffler scraping the asphalt and wheels seeming a hair’s breadth away from coming off, keeps chugging along to the end.
2.5 stars out of 5
Rated PG. Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Kerris Dorsey, Bella Thorne. Now playing.