Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy, left) instructs Tom Baker (Steve Martin) in the fine art
of pine beam smelling. Photo Credit: Peter Stranks. TM and © 2005, Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

 
“They say that starting a family is an act of optimism,” narrates Kate Baker. What about greenlighting a sequel? The first movie, as many will know, was based on the classic novel by Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. As I was not a film critic at the time, I didn’t get around to seeing the previous film. However, I’ve read the Gilbreth’s book—albeit some time ago.

I came into the film expecting it to fail. In some ways, the book is dated in its sensibilities, which isn’t to say it’s a bad book. I think it’s quite hilarious. However, as with a lot of material from decades past, I have to wonder about screen adaptations that attempt to modernize the setting. Why not make the film in the time period? As an example, I find the screenplay for “Born Yesterday” seeming entirely anachronistic in the hands of John Goodman and Melanie Griffith, whereas Judy Holliday knocked it out of the park as Billie (the role for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1951).

Tom (Steve Martin) and his wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) are now faced with the gradual departure of their eldest children. The story begins with the graduation of Lorraine (Hilary Duff). She has an internship offer with Allure magazine in New York. Their other eldest, Nora (Piper Perabo) and her husband Bud (Jonathan Bennett) have a child on the way. Bud has a job offer in Houston. More or less, the family is beginning to drift apart.

The premise of this sequel is rather simple. In an effort to gather the family together for one last hurrah, the parents plan a trip up to their cabin on Lake Winnetka, Wisconsin. Awaiting them, of course, are their cabin, not quite what it used to be (read: delapidated pit), and of course the more affluent Murtaugh family, captained by their über-competitive father, Jimmy (Eugene Levy) and his less-enthusiastic trophy wife, Sarina (Carmen Electra).

The competition is as much psychological as it is economic and physical. When the Bakers sing around a campfire, and the Murtaughs, in their enormous, expensive cabin across the lake overhear it, Jimmy suggests they start up and show the Bakers how much better they can sing. Jimmy’s always been intimidated by Tom, and that may have been part of what motivated him to overcompensate with financial wealth. Whereas the Bakers enjoy a healthy family life, the Murtaughs are driven by their father to focus entirely on studies. The Bakers, however, feel entirely overwhelmed by the Murtaughs in terms of material possessions.

The connecting thread, however, is the children. Close to graduation, Anne Murtaugh (Jaime King) and Charlie Baker (Tom Welling) differ with their parents opinions regarding their future professions. Sarah Baker (Alyson Stoner) and Eliot Murtaugh (Taylor Lautner), not quite into their teens, clearly like each other. Their “Romeo and Juliet”-inspired romance, if one can call it that, is the most charming element of this film.

Sarah’s a tomboy who’s just starting to have feelings about the opposite sex. Eliot likes Sarah because she’s into boating, sports, and the like. While there’s a predictable sequence that involves both fathers spying on their kids when the two go on a movie date, the emphasis in the movie remains on the kids’ interest in each other. Naturally, all such subplots at some point attempt to tackle the issue of self-esteem regarding one or both of the characters’ physical appearance.

In this case, it leads Sarah into an embarrassing situation involving cosmetics. Kate and Lorraine come to her aid, but what I like about this scneario is that the daughter isn’t steered toward a self-image. Rather, she consciously chooses to dress differently for her own sake as much as Eliot’s. In other words, rather than taking the Disney-fied route of trying to make a statement about the superficiality of beauty whilst ironically having beauty win out in the end, or taking the opposite road by rejecting self-image all together, the director wisely steers this subplot toward a middle conclusion: Be happy with whomever you choose to be, whatever you choose to do.

That’s also echoed in the decisions of the elder children, and I would not be spoiling anything by saying that the parents ultimately have to come to terms with these choices and accept their kids for who they are… That’s what these kind of movies are always about. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt are right on the money with their respective characters, as is Carmen Electra, whose Sarina eventually comes to the elder, experienced Kate, for parenting advice. However, I feel that, once again, as in “The Man,” Eugene Levy’s comic genius is restrained. I buy the nerdy father trying to be cool and flaunt his newfound wealth, but Levy is so much more hilarious as an obliviously un-hip, middle-class middle-ager. I dunno, maybe it’s because his character in “American Pie” reminds me of the embarrassingly-funny side of my own father… but I always have higher expectations for the SCTV alumnus.

Overall, parents looking for a movie to which their kids may drag them for an hour and a half of traditional family slapstick, coupled with some good ol’ emotionally-manipulative separation anxiety melodrama, may have some fun with their young ones at this movie. The spontaneous absurdist humor of Martin, and the methodically-uncoordinated Levy, could be an absolutely brilliant pair in a film aimed at a slightly more mature audience (”Planes, Trains and Automobiles” instantly comes to mind), but here they’re good enough for a matinee with your eight- to twelve-year olds.