Ideal Home (2018)

Directed by: Andrew Fleming | 91 minutes | comedy | Actors: Paul Rudd, Steve Coogan, Kate Walsh, Alison Pill, Jake McDorman, Lora Martinez-Cunningham, Sarah Minnich, Jenny Gabrielle, Jack Gore, Jesse Luken, Monique Candelaria, Frances Lee McCain

As if TV chef Erasmus (Steve Coogan, ‘The Trip to Italy’) and director Paul (Paul Rudd, ‘Ant-Man’) didn’t have enough mores with each other, one day Erasmus’s grandson walks in when his father is arrested. is becoming. Erasmus does not know of his existence, but is more or less forced to take care of the boy. The exuberant couple is suddenly confronted with the biggest challenge a couple can take on: parenting.

When Erasmus and Paul are constantly arguing during the recording of a (quite over the top) cooking show, an employee asks Paul why the two are staying together. Paul playfully replies that he would like to see Erasmus eventually die. It is a comical introduction to a couple who mainly express their love by insulting each other as much as possible.

Rudd sometimes showed the tendency to faint overacting in earlier films, but in ‘Ideal Home’ he remains upright without any difficulty. His character is therefore slightly more interesting than the exuberant Coogan, who makes his character very extravagant. Still, Rudd and Coogan have excellent chemistry and the scenes in which they bicker with each other are among the best in the film.

‘Ideal Home’ is at times a fresh comedy that raises some questions left and right about the suitability for parenthood and the care of a troubled child. The chemistry between the lead actors lifts the film just above average. The fact that a homosexual couple is central here is refreshing, although director Andrew Fleming at times falls far too eagerly into caricatural pitfalls. It contributes to the fact that ‘Ideal Home’ exploits the homosexuality of the main characters just too often in favor of a high joke density.

‘Ideal Home’ is mainly a funny snack and looks away nicely due to the fairly short playing time of less than an hour and a half. The fact that the characters sometimes rely too much on stereotyping gets in the way of the emotional charge, but all in all, the film just stands up. ‘Ideal Home’ is never really hilarious and certainly could have been more, but it scores just below average, mainly due to the comedic timing of the actors.