Yours, Mine & Ours

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Entertainment Weekly’s review of Chicken Little criticized the movie for a lack of originality. Sure, the animation was terrific, the review said; but gosh, haven’t we heard this story before? When I read the review, I thought: Gee, who do they think this movie is for? Jaded 45-year olds? I seriously doubt many first graders will react to Chicken Little in the way that I might.

Similarly, Yours, Mine & Ours is, of course, only the latest in a spate of family-movie remakes. And like the EW reviewer, we can carp about Paramount’s lack of originality; or we can be grateful that kids today can relive some of the fun that we enjoyed when we were younger—in the theatre, not at home watching decades-old movies on DVD.

We can also be grateful for a gentle live-action holiday option for youngsters instead of the teen-oriented darkness of Harry Potter, the perhaps overly-intense epic battle over Narnia or the raunch of anti-holiday films like Just Friends.

Yours, Mine & Ours tells the oft-told blended-family tale of conflicting cultures. In this case, Helen’s ten free-spirited, artistic bohemian tots run headlong into Frank’s regimented eight when the two widowed adults rather spontaneously marry following a high school reunion.

The former teen sweethearts rather optimistically think that they’ll be able to pick up where they left off years before, and that their combined 1.5 dozen children will be on board with the family’s move into a long-disused lighthouse. They are wrong, of course. Helen’s lack of structure is out of synch with Frank’s hyper-structured style, and the discontented rabble that is their household soon plots to break the couple up.

Not surprisingly, in working together to destroy their parents marriage, the kids finally bond. Just when Frank and Helen are ready to throw in the towel, the family has finally started to jell. The rest is Hollywood hokum and fairy-tale happy endings.

But it’s enjoyable enough, and does manage to demonstrate one universal truth: if we were all the same, life would be pretty boring. In fact, diversity of thought and disposition is required for any group to function well. As ancient wisdom reminds us,

If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" ... God has combined the members of the body ... so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (I Corinthians 12:17-25)

Since the political climate in America makes it makes plain that we’ve generally forgotten this great truth—do we really think we’d like a “red” nation or a “blue” nation?—a gentle holiday retread like Yours, Mine & Ours might just be what the doctor ordered.

Continue:
— Overview (multimedia)
— Overview Basic (dial up speed)
— Other Reviews
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages