#73: ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

#73: ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY.

Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey and Bela Thorne. Written by Rob Leiber, directed by Miguel Arteta and only 81 blissfully short minutes.

So what do we have? A typical nuclear family, you know the type. Stay at home dad, who are now known as a Fammy these days, played by Steve Carell, his beautiful, much younger wife, Jennifer Garner, - a editor-in-chief of a publishing company on the brink of her next big children's book that's going to be printed, launched and published on the very next day, quite a feat. Then there are their children, eldest boy on the brink of the prom where he's going to be named, along with his beautiful girlfriend (the best looking girl in the school) as Prom Duke and Dutchess, eldest daughter - a terribly precocious teenage acting protegy who's got the starring role of Peter Pan in tomorrow's school play. Next but one, the new member of the family, Trevor the baby - addicted to his dummy. Which can only leave Alexander, the boy for whom every day is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, day. So, it's hardly surprising that on the stroke of midnight on the day he turns 12, his brother's prom and driving test, his father's job interview, the launch of his mother's new children's book and the most popular boy in the school's own 12th birthday, Alexander makes a wish and it's everyone else's turn for the worst day of their lives while he can only look on and weep at the horrific orgy of violence and karmic retribution his thoughtless wish unleashes!

And what a day it turns out to be, with a gang rape of their eldest son after the most awful Carrie inspired Prom night I've ever seen, the self immolation of their daughter - after a terrible review, a painfully shocking circumcision that ends in search for a female version of Trevor's name and an interview that leaves Carrel paralysed from the neck down! I hadn't quite expected the payback to be quite so shocking as it was but it came as a blessed relief I have to say, I'd been dreading the thought that it might have ended with a series of silly pratfuls and slapstick moments mingled with mild life lessons and some minor jokes along the way as the family come to realise that they're at their very best when faced by the very worst life can throw at them.

The funniest line came from Garnier in the car and it's a dozzy! The rest of it is a gentle romp that didn't leave me hating.

6/10