(It’s a stroke of supreme movie fortune that their home should be as big as their hearts.) Yet if it can’t entirely banish the spectre of 12A-rated blandness from its doorstep, Instant Family retains the obvious appeal of watching basically nice people attempt a fundamentally decent thing for a few hours. Whatever the chaos wrought there, contractor Pete and the apparently jobless Ellie are blessed with the most aspirational breakfast nook of any screen couple since Hidden’s Binoche-Auteuil pairing. 1 hr 57 mins Drama, Comedy PG13 Watchlist Wishing to start a family, Pete and Ellie decide to take in three foster siblings, including a rebellious teenager. And the crucial matter of resources has been slyly smoothed over. It doesn’t look like much more than four episodes of a network sitcom bolted together, a mid-film montage to George Harrison’s What Is Life serving as the height of its cinematic ambition. Force-of-nature Margo Martindale and an unimprovably spacey Julie Hagerty provide energy boosts as overnight grannies in a rare American comedy that unabashedly loves its mothers. The premise of Instant Family is not an easy one to make light of, especially since Anders, who also co-wrote the movie, includes some serious doses of reality in the mix. That settling-in period falls between cacophonous and exhausting, yet Anders treats the kids as distinct organisms with issues that require attention, and his casting suggests its own support network. After an all-too-brief honeymoon period, chaos starts to break out as first-time parents stumble through caring for a traumatized teenager and two scared children. White saviour complexes are shot down by dream-team care workers Tig Notaro and Octavia Spencer Wahlberg and Byrne, with easy if frazzled chemistry, admit they want nothing more than for their just-installed charges to reach moving-out age. They hope to take in one small child, but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious. Within a workable framing gag – that puppyish Pete and overthinker Ellie have no clue what they’re doing – Anders sets about bypassing everybody’s expectations and prejudices. When Pete and Ellie decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption.

Instant family movie on netflix