Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 1.5
Married psychologists, Catherine (Toni Collette) and Ben (Matthew Goode), take three children (two adopted, one biological) and decide to repeat the studies of John B. Watson on 'molding' kids to become whatever you want them to be (lawyer, artist, doctor, etc.) - there to 'guide' them is coke-fiend Gertz (Michael Smiley), who has his own agenda. The idea is intriguing (speaking as a Psych major) - if extremely unethical - but Ben's tactics with the little ones becomes more and more extreme (destroying the TV, burning books, showing nude photos of dancers, killing a rat in a maze) and Catherine has a nervous breakdown, so their subjects, fed up with Mom and Dad, take off with the car to get away from them. The results, I'm afraid, are inconclusive - there are misguided stabs at comedy, Catherine and Ben are more pathetic than noble and the third act is vague: I'm guessing Hoss-Desmarais and Marc Tulin, the screenwriter, are suggesting that nurture can over-rule nature in some cases, although I'm not sure studies done agree with them. Sometimes your lil one becomes Picasso, sometimes a bathroom cleaner: fate's a mean one, I'll tell you that.
