Review: We’re the Millers (2013)

Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber | 110 minutes | comedy, crime | Actors: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Will Poulter, Emma Roberts, Ed Helms, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Molly C. Quinn, Tomer Sisley, Matthew Willig, Luis Guzmán, Thomas Lennon, Mark L. Young, Ken Marino, Laura- Leigh, Crystal Nichol, Dickson Obahor

This is what the customs officer sees: a happy family. Dad, mom, two kids, in an RV on return trip from Mexico. That’s how it should appear. In reality, he watches the cheerful drug dealer who has gathered a family – consisting of a stripper, a homeless person, and a nerd – to smuggle the drug-packed camper across the border. Nothing is what it seems in “We’re the Millers”.

When soft drugs dealer David Clark assists his neighbor Kenny Rossmore in a riot where homeless Casey Mathis is harassed by a group of men, he mingles with the wrong people. As naive as Kenny is, he panics that David is a dealer and that arouses the unsettling interest among the troublemakers. Because where there are drugs, there is money. David is robbed of all his stock and earnings. Drug lord and supplier Brad Gurdlinger gets wind of it and is not charmed by this news, to say the least. He makes him a proposal: smuggle a small amount of drugs from Mexico across the border and that settles the bill. Since David has nowhere to go, he accepts the proposal. But how do you get a load of hash across the US border safely?

Thinking about the stairs of their apartment complex, he tries to come up with an ingenious plan together with Kenny. At that point, an old RV drives into the street with an All-American middle-class family asking for directions but blocking the street. Due to their solid appearance, they avoid a fine for wrong parking and the agent wishes them a pleasant journey. This spectacle gives David the bright idea of ​​traveling to Mexico in that frumpy disguise. But where can you find a mother, a son and a daughter within a day? The complex is home to Rose O’Reilly, a stripper in arrears and immune to David’s flirtation attempts. He offers her $ 30,000 to play the mother of the happy family. Kenny is cast as the potty son and the rebellious daughter role is played by the homeless Casey who joins the play for $ 1000.

After a metamorphosis of frumpy hairstyles, pleated trousers and pearl necklaces, the newly-made “Millers” are ready. After some adjustment problems in their new lifestyle, they drive across the Mexican border in their enormous camper without any problems. They arrive at a large and highly secured estate and David takes his first steps as a bourgeois father figure towards henchman One-Eye. The unsalted Mexican observes David and he fully lives up to the description of a good family man that his boss Pablo Chacon had given. Time to take the contraband and the RV is fully loaded with bales of hash, something David was not informed about. He thought more of contraband in the size of a sports bag. This puts extra pressure on the kettle, because crossing the border with hundreds of kilos of hash is of a completely different caliber. But as easily as they came, the family left the estate in good spirits. Meanwhile, Pablo Chacon arrives with his “family man” smuggler and hears that the cargo has already been collected. The manhunt for the Millers is set in motion and a trigger-happy Mexican drug lord in your wake doesn’t make family life any happier.

If you think “We’re the Millers” is a fun, family road trip movie, you will be disappointed. From coarse language to very sensual strip acts with which Jennifer Aniston (“Friends”) will delight many a fan, to banal humor and embarrassing dialogues between swinging fellow campers. Jason Sudeikis (“Hall Pass”) is very comfortable in this genre and he carries the film out the most. The earlier collaboration between Aniston and Sudeikis in “Horrible Bosses” is also now being continued in a pleasant way. Director Rawson Marshall Thurber (“Dodgeball, The True Underdog Story”) now knows what to do with comedies that cross the boundaries of morality. Sudeikis makes use of the fourth wall during Aniston’s much-discussed workshop comic scene, by briefly reminding the viewer with a blissful grimace how wonderful his profession is. British newcomer Will Poulter gives the production some familiar depth and his endearingness suits his little brother image very well. Rebellious oboe Casey adds little substance to the growing sense of family and Emma Roberts has been given little room to develop her role further. Although the film is strung with clichés and insults, “We’re the Millers” is an above-average fresh comedy in which family ties are rearranged.