Movie Review: 'Parental Guidance'

When a film has got a stellar cast headed by Billy Crystal (Monsters Inc., When Harry Met Sally), Bette Midler (The Stepford Wives, Beaches) and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei (Crazy, Stupid, Love; Anger Management), it’s one you shouldn’t miss.

This January, Twentieth Century Fox presents its new family comedy, Parental Guidance, about how Alice (Tomei) is forced to ask her parents Artie (Crystal) and Diane (Midler) to look after her three kids while she and her husband Phil (Tom Everett Scott) take a trip for work.

Having been estranged from their grandchildren for so long, Artie and Diane want to turn things around by being the best grandparents they can be while Alice and her husband Phil are away from home. As Diane puts it, “Grandparenting is a second chance!”

The only problem is, Alice and her parents don’t exactly see eye to eye when it comes to their parenting approach. Whereas Alice believes in the magic of words, empowering her children with their decisions, and resorting to the aid of technology and professionals to raise and educate her children, Artie and Diane have always deemed tough love, fun, songs and games to be central to parenting.

Thus, the differences between old school and modern parenting take center stage in this family-friendly film speckled with the expert comic timing and the wonderful screen tandem of Crystal and Midler, the endearing characters of the grandkids Harper (Bailey Madison), Turner (Joshua Rush), Barker Simmons (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf, and the overanxious but deeply motherly Alice.

Get ready to laugh your heart out with countless antics from the young characters and with Crystal’s expertly delivered punch lines, made even more hilarious with Midler’s infectious energy and enthusiasm.

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The movie illustrates how every age has its fair share of challenges and how it sometimes takes the prodding of a trusted adult to take the first step to dealing with these struggles.

While the idea of having your in-laws or your parents babysit your kids isn’t new to us Pinoys, Parental Guidance mirrors some of the issues that create friction between 21st century parents and older parents. With new parenting methods cropping up left and right and gadgets becoming a necessity both as a work and play tool, grandparents lose solid footing in the unfamiliar. What used to work for them may not necessarily work nowadays.

There’s a silver lining though in the film, as it shows that there are some parenting tips and tricks that never go out of style, and that these same ways can work hand in hand with more contemporary practices.

The beauty of the movie lies in the acknowledgement that, old as their ways may be, grandparents possess gems of parenting wisdom and as such, younger parents need to learn how to trust their parents. It also illustrates how they play a vital role in co-raising their grandchildren.

The movie helps us evaluate our relationship with our parents and in-laws, as well as how much we value how we were brought up, in connection with how we parent our kids today.

While we may often feel that we know what’s best for our children, our own parents have also gone down the same path, and their footsteps are worth revisiting in times of doubt.

Thoroughly entertaining, bursting with humor and full of lessons for parents of any age, Parental Guidance shows us the joys of having grandparents whom we can turn to for advice, support, and whom we can also entrust with the honor of raising our own children.