Patrick Edmond

For me, the movie never really left the ground. Topically, it certainly touches on a subject that is relevant to now, but the big power message it seeks to deliver at the end, it does not. The majority of the film feels like a cut and past from any movie or after school special you would see about drugs and addiction but with a bigger budget and peppered with montages of upper-middle class family life. The pacing also seemed a little off at the beginning and some of the back story is left a bit ambiguous. Acting, overall, is not great especially by the adults of the film (Carell, Ryan, and Tierney) and all the characters are underdeveloped. The combination of those things makes poignant moments and pivot points for the characters less effective. Overall, this is a movie where the subject matter carries the script and the actors rather than the other way around. It's not a bad film, but there's room for improvement and certainly other films that tackle the issue better.