Wednesday, August 3, 2022

Yes Day (2021)

IMDb plot summary: A mom and dad who usually say no decide to say yes to their kids' wildest requests with a few ground rules on a whirlwind day of fun and adventure.
Directed by Miguel Arteta. Starring Jennifer Garner, Edgar Ramirez, and Jenna Ortega.

Yes Day is a family comedy featuring Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez as uptight parents. When Garner discovers that her kids think of her as a tyrant and a dictator, she decides to plan a "yes day" for them, in which she and her husband will agree to whatever they want to plan. The majority of the movie follows the hijinks that ensue as the kids determine the course of the day. This is absolutely a children's fantasy movie about being able to do whatever they want and go wherever they want, so it's a little weird that the protagonist is the mother more than the kids. Jennifer Garner is somehow simultaneously good and bad in this, with an obvious uncomfortable stiltedness in early scenes and then one unexpectedly hilarious sequence in which she completely loses it on a stranger at the carnival. I literally went from thinking, "This is why I don't like Jennifer Garner in anything," to thinking, "Hold on, is she actually a really talented comedienne?" As a whole though, most of it isn't either very good or very bad. It's a cute movie about parents and children. No more.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Yes Day < Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Yes Day > Heidi (1937)
Yes Day < The Christmas Toy
Yes Day < The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Yes Day > Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Yes Day > Blue Valentine
Yes Day < Peter Pan (2003)
Yes Day < Steel Magnolias
Yes Day < Martha Marcy May Marlene
Yes Day < Miss Potter
Yes Day < Annie (2014)
Yes Day < The Dinner Game
Final spot: #2565 out of 3647, or 30%.

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