Bias? Movie Critics Scorch Christian Film
"'Moms’ Night Out' is really all about moms staying home, where, according to this movie, they apparently belong." A new film by brothers Jon and Andy Erwin called "Moms' Night Out" opened Friday and movie critics wasted no time in utterly damning the film for being faith-based and sexist.
Rarely does a movie with a Christian perspective fare well amongst progressively minded critics and this one is no exception. For them, the offense stems from the premise of the movie: a group of moms want a night out but have to leave their kids in the hands of their less-than-capable husbands and, predictably, chaos ensues. These "gender-specific," or rather traditional, roles are just too archaic for the critics to deem relatable. Not to mention the biblical advice the moms receive that helps them realize they truly appreciate being moms and raising a family.
Here are some choice samples from the critics:
New York Daily News — Elizabeth Weitzman
'Moms’ Night Out' is really all about moms staying home, where, according to this movie, they apparently belong.
Things go wrong immediately, which in this movie means they lose their dinner reservations and have to go bowling instead. Additional chaos is created by their baby-sitting husbands — because, we’re repeatedly reminded, men are overgrown adolescents who are either mystified or terrified by children.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with faith-based entertainment. The problem comes when, as with any heavily slanted perspective, the faith takes precedence over the entertainment.
The New York Times — Neil Genzlinger
Seldom has wackiness been as tedious as it is in “Moms’ Night Out,” a Christian-themed film that is desperate to make adherents seem wild and crazy but mostly makes them seem incapable of raising children.
Allyson (Sarah Drew of “Grey’s Anatomy”) is a young mother who appears, in the grand scheme of things, to have a pretty easy life but is thrown into hysterics by garden-variety mishaps. The character, frankly, is an insult to the millions of women who have much more to deal with: single mothers who manage parenthood and a career, for instance, or those with seriously ill children and little money. Her husband (Sean Astin) is that odious Hollywood caricature: the father who is terrified by the prospect of minding his own children for a few hours.
Anyway, Allyson decides that an evening out at a nice restaurant with her gal pals will cure all her discontent, and all — forgive me — hell breaks loose, with a hospital and a jail among the places the various participants end up. The film, directed by Jon and Andrew Erwin, is way too eager to emphasize that Christians do all the with-it things. They blog! They text! They drive recklessly!
Little of it is funny or genuine, and the benefits and beauty of real faith are nowhere in evidence.
Newsday — Rafer Guzman
It's rare that a movie fails on absolutely every level, but "Moms' Night Out" is a remarkably vivid example.
It takes place in an unnamed, overwhelmingly Caucasian town…
Toronto's Globe and Mail — Kate Taylor
'Mom’s Night Out' is patronizing with gender roles.
Mainly, you have to wonder why Allyson doesn’t just hire a nanny, find a job and get out of the house. Ah, but this is a Christian movie, and once it stops pelting an audience with comic incident, it begins preaching. Through the crazy night, Allyson comes to see that she should just relax and enjoy motherhood. “I am right where I need to be and God has given me everything I need to be a mom,” she concludes after a little sermon from a heavily tattooed biker who tells her Jesus loves her as she is.
In other words, Allyson will be just fine if she sticks to her conventional role.
You don’t expect rom-coms to question heterosexual pair-bonding or action movies to denounce violence, but still, this is a pretty limited social palette that the Erwins are painting with, despite a few patronizing nods to single-motherhood. What is actually offensive (and unrealistic) is how men are portrayed, as inevitably incompetent when it comes to caring for young children.
RogerEbert.com — Christy Lemire
Depressingly regressive and borderline dangerous, "Moms’ Night Out" peddles archaic notions of gender roles in the name of wacky laughs.
Why must faith-based offerings be so lame and—worst of all—so out of touch with reality?
Basically, the moral of the story is: Don’t go out. Because if you do, all hell will break loose—or rather, all heck.
But the ultimate message here is unmistakable, regardless of your religious beliefs: A woman’s place is in the home, not out on the town.
Entertainment Weekly — Marc Snetiker
It's a shame that this glossy production doesn't seem to realize it's actually promoting an altogether different message: when moms dare to leave the house, everything goes wrong.
Village Voice — Heather Baysa
Outrageously enough, the moral of Moms' Night Out seems to be that moms should never get a night out. This Mother's Day weekend release is pretty much a PG-rated 'The Hangover,' but with an ill-fitting God angle that slowly wedges its way into the movie — an agenda that, in retrospect, explains the conspicuous lack of booze, drugs, and sex.
Rampant sexism aside, it's curious how the movie addresses the symptoms but never the cause of Allyson's unhappiness.
In the end, a guardian angel stand-in draws our protago-mom back to the light with some choice Bible quotes, but not before the only single working mother in the group gets severely jilted and returns to her man. In a big reunion scene, Sean tells Allyson that her "job" is the most important job. It's less a compliment than a passive-aggressive plea she never take another night for herself. If she did, the movie insists, all hell would break loose.
Moviegoers are proving the critics to be the ones out of touch with reality based on reactions to the critics' articles. Most commenters said they enjoyed the film and could entirely relate to the scenarios presented. Movie review site Rotten Tomatoes shows an 80% "like" among moviegoers as of this writing, compared to the critics who low-balled it at 17%.
The film was shot in Birmingham, Alabama -- the Erwin brothers' hometown -- and opened in 1,000 theaters nationwide. The film stars Sarah Drew ("Grey's Anatomy"), Sean Astin ("The Goonies" and "The Lord of the Rings" Series), Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), and country star Trace Adkins.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/movie-critics-scorch-christian-film
