Instant Family: A review

[hocus pocus]

Instant Family: A review
By Jenna (.:Bibliophile:.)

Instant Family is a movie that focuses on Pete and Ellie Wagner, a couple who decide to take in foster children. The couple go into it expecting to take in one child but they end up fostering three children after finding out that the child they are interested in has two younger siblings. The children, Lizzie, Juan and Lita have dealt with a lot of difficult things and end up giving the couple a difficult time because of their experiences living with a drug addicted mom and ending up in foster care. During the course of the movie you see how the couple and children go about dealing with one another.

The movie is a drama comedy and I thought it did such a great job conveying the difficulty of foster care while also including comedy. There's a line in the movie that discusses how while being a foster parent you have to find a way to laugh because it's such a tough thing. I connected with that because of my own trauma and having to find a way to laugh about it or else I would just want to cry every day.

I ended up loving this movie although I was slightly worried that I wouldn't. I connected with all the characters and I wanted to see them have a happy ending. I also felt like the movie did a good job of having the characters develop a relationship. They didn't jump into everyone loving each other because that wouldn't be realistic. They showed how difficult it can be to be a foster child and how difficult it can be to be a foster parent.

Lizzie was a great character. She was the oldest sibling and the movie did a good job of showing how she had to take on caring for her siblings and I thought that was a good thing to include because a lot of older foster children end up having to take care of their siblings.

I rate this movie five stars. The movie was so heartwarming and the comedy was done well. The balance between discussing difficult topics and comedy was something I appreciated. I don't tend to re-watch a lot of movies but I would consider re-watching this movie due to how much I enjoyed it.