Welcome to another installment of WHAT'S ON NETFLIX?, where we pick out a film currently playing on Netflix and review it for the fans. This weeks selection is the 2016 Sundance film and Netflix original...THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CARING.
The
Fundamentals of Caring is a new original film by Netflix that debuted
on the streaming service a few weeks ago. It's
based on the Jonathan Evison novel titled The Revised Fundamentals of
Care-giving, and it stars the endlessly-lovable Paul Rudd, along with Craig Roberts and Selena Gomez.
The
movie, written and directed by Rob Burnett, stars Paul Rudd as Ben, a
guy going through a divorce, who, after a personal tragedy, decides to
enroll in a class about care-giving to try to help people while also trying to turn
his life around. Ben gets the job as a full-time caregiver to a 19-year-old British kid named Trevor, played by Craig Roberts, who is going through the advanced
stages of muscular dystrophy. Trevor is a
tyrannical, sarcastic teen who has an axe to grind with the universe,
but the two strike up a friendship that leads to them going on a road
trip to fulfill one of Trevor's dreams; visiting a bunch of lame roadside attractions. Along the way they meet Dot, a runaway girl played by
Selena Gomez who tags along for the ride.
What
could've been a generic, cliché-ridden indie road trip comedy was
elevated here by the strength of the screenplay, and of course the
brilliant performances from its two leads. Paul Rudd may be the most
likable person on Earth, and as always he's a pleasure to watch in
this film, giving a charming and subdued performance. Selena Gomez
has a big role in this and was surprisingly good. While it seems like
she's trying too hard to break away from her Disney persona here by
saying the F word as many times as she can, she is genuinely good
in this movie. He character is likable and she has great chemistry
with Rudd and Roberts. Which brings me to the real star of the show.
Young Welsh actor Craig Roberts was absolutely phenomenal in this
movie as Trevor, showing a whole lot of range in his performance,
despite being confined to a motorized wheelchair. He is entirely
convincing as his sarcastic character with a penchant for dark
humor. He also shows a lot of dramatic range when needed. It's an
emotional performance and during the dramatic scenes he was
definitely the most convincing of the three leads. I thought he was great in Richard Ayoade's Submarine, and I hope this
movie opens up more roles for him, because he's very talented.
Netflix,
after producing two terrible Adam Sandler movies and a lazy Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel, are back on the right track with this
film, and I can't wait to see what they give us next. It's a great movie that you can put on and watch any time.
It's also surprisingly funny, there were quite a few times during
this movie where I was genuinely belly laughing.
While The Fundamentals of Caring is filled with road trip cliches, there are also times where is doesn't go where you expect it to, and for a movie about a guy suffering from a debilitating and life threatening illness, it's fairly upbeat. It doesn't beat you over the head with melodrama or force sympathy for its characters. It has a sense of humor about itself. This movie was tailor-made for me, and if you love these quirky, coming of age dramedies then I think you'll really enjoy this film.
I'd
highly recommend checking out The Fundamentals of Caring if you have Netflix. It's short and it'll put a smile on your face. It's a
great movie you can watch with your family, but be weary it has a lot
of swearing in it.
Jacob's Score: 8/10
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