Watch The Fundamentals of Caring on Netflix
Written by: Rob Burnett (screenplay), Jonathan Evison (novel)
Directed by: Rob Burnett
Starring: Craig Roberts, Selena Gomez, Paul Rudd, Bobby Cannavale
Rated: TV-MA/R
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| The Fundamentals of Caring - Predictable, buddy, road trip, made-for-tv, comedy. |
A caretaker with a troubled past cares for a teenager with muscular dystrophy. Together they overcome emotional barriers.
Verdict:
This is a made-for-tv premise that delivers a made-for-tv experience. It has two funny jokes, but it's not worth watching the entire movie. There's little entertainment and even fewer surprises. It's predictable and contrived.
Skip it.
Review:
This is the platonic version of The Fault in Our Stars (2014) without the clever writing and emotional impact. Craig Roberts does a good job as Trevor, but he can't carry this movie. This is a movie where the main characters life dream is to urinate standing up. It delivers, but it's as exciting as you'd imagine.
Paul Rudd as Ben is jobless and getting divorced. This looked like a down on his luck guy who finds purpose as a caregiver with someone worse off than himself. That's exactly what it is.
It handles muscular dystrophy well, not afraid to make a few jokes about it. When Trevor comments that after one night with him the pretty news reporter on television "wouldn't be able to walk properly." Ben responds, "Would you give her muscular dystrophy?"
The mall/muh conversation is also hilarious.
The movie has a parallel plot about what happened to Ben's son. When Trevor makes a flippant comment about Ben never having kids, knowing that Ben did have a son, Ben flies off the handle and tells Trevor to to live his life and stop hiding behind his disease. This kicks off a road trip. No longer able to hide behind his wheelchair, Trevor isn't as snarky. This movie is one big trope. I get he's out of his comfort zone, but the movie doesn't balance his personality well.
There is one scene where a character holds a phone in portrait orientation to take a photo. This is made by filmmakers. None of them thought to hold the phone correctly? I personally find this extremely annoying. It makes me want to smack the phone out of the person's hand.
Ben and Trevor run into Selena Gomez again. It's no surprise. The movie might as well flash "you'll see her again" on the screen when they meet and then leave her intitially.
The tragic accident with Ben's son was a parking brake failure. Which doesn't just stretch credibility, but is much lamer than I ever would have imagined.
Ben comes to term with the tragedy when he helps a woman give birth with a level of contrivance I didn't think was possible. The movie's crowning moment is a CGI urination sequence, and then we conclude with Ben turning the events into a book. His prose is terrible, much like this movie.
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