Thirteen Years On, We’re the Millers Still Proves It Was a Miss

We’re the Millers is a comedy about a drug dealer named David Spade who agrees to help a young woman get into the country illegally. She wants to get her sick sister out of Mexico. He agrees, and then he has to pretend she is his daughter so she can cross the border. The premise sounds like it could work. It doesn’t.

Trailer, via Warner Bros..

David Spade’s Drug Dealer

David Spade plays David Young, a man who deals drugs to support himself and his mother. His mother lives in a trailer park in Arizona. She is played by Jennifer Aniston, who is the only reason anyone watches this movie. Her character is meant to be funny, but she is mostly just annoying. She yells at him constantly and refuses to let him live his life.

Spade is supposed to be charming and likable. He is not. He is mean to everyone around him, especially to the woman he is helping. He treats her like a burden instead of a person. This makes the movie hard to watch, because you are supposed to root for him to succeed. You don’t.

Emma Stone’s Sister

Emma Stone plays a woman who is trying to get her sister out of Mexico. She is sweet and kind, and she wants to save her sister. That is the only thing she cares about. The movie spends almost no time on why her sister is sick or what happens to her after they cross the border. The whole plot hinges on saving her sister, and the movie never shows us what happens.

The problem is that Stone’s character is barely developed. She is a prop in the story, not a person. She is there to be rescued, not to rescue herself. This is a failure of writing, not acting. Stone tries her hardest, but the script gives her nothing to work with.

Jonah Hill’s Friend

Jonah Hill plays a man who helps David Young with the plan. He is a friend of David’s who knows about the drug business. Hill is funny, but he is wasted here. His character is meant to be a comic foil, but the jokes are not there. He is just along for the ride, and the movie never lets him shine.

Hill deserves better than this. He has made far better movies, and he will make far better ones in the future. Here, he is stuck playing a sidekick who gets beaten up and chased. There is no dignity in this role, and the movie does not give him any.

The Border Crossing

The climax of We’re the Millers is the border crossing. David Young and his group try to cross into the United States with the woman and her sister. The chase scenes are loud and fast, but they are not exciting. They are just noise. The editing cuts away from the action before you can see what is happening.

The ending is a letdown. After everything builds to this moment, the movie just stops. The bad guys are caught, the good guys escape, and that is it. There is no payoff, no resolution, no moment of triumph. It feels like the writers ran out of ideas and decided to end it early.

The Problem With the Plot

There are several problems with the plot of We’re the Millers:

• The main character is unlikable and mean to everyone around him.
• The woman he is helping is underdeveloped and treated like a prop.
• The friend character is wasted and given no jokes.
• The border crossing is loud but empty.
• The ending is a letdown.

These are not small problems. These are fatal problems. A comedy should make you laugh. We’re the Millers does not make you laugh. It makes you uncomfortable.

Jennifer Aniston’s Trailer Park

The best part of We’re the Millers is Jennifer Aniston’s performance. She plays David Young’s mother, a woman who lives in a trailer park and runs a business selling fake identification cards. She is loud and demanding, and she is the only character who has any personality. Even when she is being cruel, she is funny.

Aniston carries the movie. Without her, it would collapse entirely. She is the reason anyone watches this movie. She is also the reason the movie fails. Her character is so over-the-top that she overshadows everyone else. The other actors are left playing supporting roles in a story that belongs to her.

A Comedy That Misses

We’re the Millers is a comedy that misses. It misses the mark on every level. The jokes fall flat, the characters are thin, and the story goes nowhere. It is a movie that wastes talent and wastes time.

It is not a disaster, but it is close. It is a movie that should have been better. It is a movie that could have been a classic. Instead, it is a forgettable mess.

comedy · david spade · Emma Stone · movie review · we're the millers