‘Nutcrackers’: Toronto Review

Dir: David Gordon Inexperienced. US. 2024. 104mins 

Ben Stiller has made a profession out of portraying neurotic, unfulfilled males who have to reconnect with their sense of pleasure — possibly even their interior baby. His newest movie, the comedy-drama Nutcrackers, capitalises on that persona as he performs a targeted govt who thinks he doesn’t have time to handle his deceased sister’s younger youngsters, solely to find that they faucet into one thing he had suppressed inside himself. Sadly, David Gordon Inexperienced’s healthful throwback to rambunctious household movies like The Dangerous Information Bears strains to promote the openhearted spirit of this Christmas-themed lark.

Strains to promote its openhearted spirit

After making three Halloween movies and an Exorcist sequel, the director returns to Toronto with a lighter, sweeter image, which is able to most likely work finest for many who admire Nutcrackers’ undemanding humour and acquainted contours. Lately, Stiller has targeted on directing for tv, so this movie represents his first main big-screen position because the 2017 pair of The Meyerowitz Tales and Brad’s Standing. Sadly, Nutcrackers is a much less interesting proposition, and theatrical prospects look modest at finest.

The vacations are on the horizon as Michael (Stiller), a high-powered actual property exec, drives from Chicago to the Ohio small city the place his sister and brother-in-law lived earlier than they died in a automobile crash. Michael has been summoned to safeguard his 4 nephews — Justice (Homer Janson), Junior (Ulysses Janson) and twins Samuel (Atlas Janson) and Simon (Arlo Janson) — however he insists he should return to Chicago imminently to finalise a profitable deal he has spent six years shaping. 

With that premise, audiences can simply guess the place Leland Douglas’ screenplay is headed, and arguably certainly one of Nutcrackers’ pleasures is its dependable predictability. Irrespective of how grumpy the all-business Michael is about looking for a foster dwelling for his estranged nephews, inevitably he’ll come to search out their wisecracking methods endearing. Including to the image’s cosy vibe is the truth that the Janson boys are literally the sons of certainly one of Inexperienced’s longtime mates, and it appears clear that the director allowed his younger stars to improvise sure moments reverse Stiller’s slow-burn straight man. 

However the comfy narrative twists and turns could be extra satisfying if the story had actual resonance. For a movie about grief, Nutcrackers is nearly too cheery, by no means pinpointing the fitting steadiness of poignancy and cathartic humour. There’s a perfunctory high quality to Michael’s mission to find a very good dwelling for the nephews, a quest that forces him to get chummy with among the locals — together with the rich Al Wilmington (Toby Huss) — as a way to unload these crass children. However these sequences’ sitcom-y high quality shortchanges any emotional underpinnings. As anticipated, Michael will ultimately realise Justice and his brothers signify a hyperlink to the sister who had drifted out of his life, however Nutcrackers fails to make that recognition heartbreaking or profound. 

With the Janson brothers, Inexperienced is so targeted on adolescent shenanigans that he exhibits little perception into the complexity of youngsters, particularly ones reeling from tragedy. Homer is essentially the most expressive — as well as, he’s an excellent ballet dancer, which is able to develop into a vital ingredient of the Nutcrackers’ finale — however the nephews are too typically merely cute quite than being permitted to show any dimensionality. Consequently, Stiller has to do a number of the heavy lifting comedically, and the script doesn’t present him with sufficient zingers.

Close to the finale, Nutcrackers pivots from broad comedy to a tear-jerking tone wherein the nephews mount their very own tackle The Nutcracker as a tribute to their late mom, who was an completed dancer. Capturing in 35mm, which additional burnishes the image’s heat, Inexperienced unapologetically goals for a sentimental ending wherein our characters be taught the significance of household and the necessity to prioritise happiness over success.

Stiller has typically portrayed harried characters present process this inner transformation, and he executes it with such offhand grace that it helps paper over a few of Nutcrackers’ extra  threadbare qualities. He’s well-paired with Linda Cardellini, who performs Gretchen, a sympathetic social employee pleased to offer Michael recommendation about easy methods to be a greater, extra thoughtful particular person when the story requires it. However turning these trite homilies into one thing really touching is a problem Inexperienced’s movie by no means cracks.