Warner Bros. Pictures
What constitutes a family – nature vs. nurture – is the question at the heart of We’re the Millers, a road movie whose four-member clan is brought together as a family (Moon) by ulterior motives and Neptunian deceit.
In the movie, directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, the guy who’ll become the ring-leader patriarch is Dave (Jason Sudeikis), a thriving, career drug dealer who prides himself on his no-emotional-strings-attached life in Colorado. When he’s robbed of his product and cash, Dave is forced to pay up his supplier Brad (Ed Helms) by going to Mexico and bringing back a “smidgen” of weed in an RV. Before embarking on his mission, Dave sees a family of tourists in exactly that type of vehicle, and a light bulb goes off in his head. What better way to ensure easy navigating the Mexican border than by heading up a loving parental unit with kids in tow?
Rose (Jennifer Aniston), a stripper who lives in Dave’s building who’s just quit her job in a huff and is about to be evicted from her apartment, becomes the Mom part of the equation for a tidy sum, despite her hatred for the guy. A shy, sweet, naive lug of a teen Kenny (Will Poulter), whose own mother is temporarily absent, is next to be recruited. Kenny, in turn, brings on a sullen, foul-mouthed but clever street kid, Casey (Emma Roberts). And suddenly they’re the Millers, who learn all too quickly that the massive quantity of marijuana they’ve actually got to transport back to the U.S. can barely fit into their gigantic roadster.
In the scheme of screenplay set-ups and check-offs, audiences know instantly where this is all going. Dave will cozy up to the idea that togetherness isn’t half-bad, Rose will demonstrate there’s more to her than pole-dancing, Kenny will become romantically heroic and Casey will become a better appraiser of male behavior by addressing her own skewed boundary issues.
But the fun is watching how the original premise – Dave’s “deceit (Neptune) about family (Moon)” – transmutes into a sort of “idealizing (Neptune) the family (Moon).” The blotto fuzziness traditionally associated with Neptune becomes, here, a fuzzy-wuzzy do-over.”
Astrology Film Review: ☽♆ (Moon, Neptune)
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