Bedtime Stories (2008)

Directed by: Adam Shankman | 94 minutes | comedy, family, fantasy | Actors: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Courteney Cox, Teresa Palmer, Russell Brand, Lucy Lawless, Jonathan Pryce, Aisha Tyler, Kathryn Joosten, Richard Griffiths, Dana Goodman, Debbie Lee Carrington, Julia Lea Wolov, Jasmine Dustin, Abigail Droeger, Veronica Bennett, Mikey Post, Bob Ross, Brian Peck, Annalize Basso, Lulu, Nicole Sciacca, Jonathan Morgan Heit, Jayme Lynn Evans, Laura King Kesling, Catherine Kwong, Richard Schimmelpfenneg, Matt Jordon, Franklin Ruehl, Myra Cheney, Danni Katz, Johntae Lipscomb, Ricky Marciano, Sarah Buxton, Adam Greeves, Maxine Hayden, Mark Kubr, Jordan Lawson, Louis Riviere, Sebastian Saraceno

Disney’s Christmas film for 2008 is ‘Bedtime Stories’ and although this family film nowhere nears the level of the much better ‘Enchanted’, Disney’s Christmas hit from the previous year, it is a nice pastime. Marty Bronson (Jonathan Pryce, who also does the voice-over) runs the Sunny Vista Motel, a small family motel, and especially has a good relationship with his son Skeeter (Thomas Hoffman, who is so well cast as a young version of Adam Sandler, that it’s just creepy). He teaches his son that fantasy knows no bounds and regularly proves this by telling him stories of his own before Skeeter goes to sleep. Skeeter, in turn, helps his father come up with improvements for the motel. Although Marty is a good father and a good host, he is not a good businessman and he finds himself forced to sell the motel to Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths). Marty does have Barry verbally promise that Skeeter will one day run the family business again.

Years later, Skeeter (Adam Sandler) has not climbed a step on the social ladder; he still fulfills the job of jack-of-all-trades in the now very large hotel. Marty has since passed away, but Skeeter has not forgotten the promise and is still fond of the hotel. When his recently divorced sister Wendy (Courteney Cox) asks him to babysit her two children for a week in the evening and overnight because she has to travel for a job interview, he agrees, despite his niece and nephew. has not seen for four years. The day shift takes on Wendy’s girlfriend and co-worker Jill (Keri Russell), and the relationship between Skeeter and Jill takes off so badly that romance is clearly in the air.

It’s a shame that the makers thought it necessary to cram a love story into ‘Bedtime Stories’ in addition to the “growth” that Skeeters character is going through, because that means both aspects get too little attention. Skeeter and Jill go from spontaneous antipathy to tolerating each other, and then suddenly the viewer is forced to believe they’ve fallen for each other. As a result, Skeeter’s ideas for boosting his career are just as out of the blue. It’s also unfortunate that some of the supporting actors have less to do than the film does well: English comedian Russell Brand is very funny, but Teresa Palmer is also nice, but there could have been more in their roles. Guy Pearce, an almost unrecognizable Lucy Lawless and Richard Griffiths are just caricatures and therefore destroy more than they positively influence the film. But it must be said, the film’s premise – bedtime stories come true the day after – is definitely the film’s strongest point, it’s a joy to watch the story told by Skeeter and by niece Bobbie and nephew Patrick. supplemented stories reveal themselves the next day. Skeeter’s frantic efforts to make the inventions work in his favor are hilarious, as are the scenes where he already sees what’s coming (“Shall we hide from the rain?”) and the sequences in which he tries to prevent these events from happening again. take place, such as purchasing all kinds of fire-resistant materials. The visual effects are very nice and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into this part: the way the fairy tales in Skeeter’s real life come true is very inventive.

(Young) viewers will love Bugsy, the guinea pig that has eyes like saucers thanks to a combination of CGI and live action. For the adult viewers there are enough winks in it (such as the Paris Hilton parody played by Teresa Palmer, which fortunately isn’t that lame). The use of music is also perfect (think of the scene when Skeeter is frantically searching in his car for a radio station that isn’t broadcasting a song with any kind of ‘fire’). ‘Bedtime Stories’ is therefore a nice film for young and old, but one with the necessary beauty flaws.