The Present

The-Present
The Present

Unfortunately, it is foremost not many of us have the opportunity to influence the present combining two very important aspects of the events Almost all of us cannot allow one event of the past to determine the current situation. If you disagree, drop us a comment with an explanation. But if we talk about this in terms of movies, it is completely different! If anything can happen, then so can Time travel.

The time traveling storyline is not new to The Present the newest movie in town. It had its theatrical release in a few countries and now has been made available for streaming on Netflix in the UK, which is convenient for anyone with a subscription to the service as now the movie can be viewed in the comfort of their homes.

The film directed by Christian Ditter (How to Be Single), revolves around Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear’s portrayal of a couple going through a divorce. This cannot be good for their children Taylor (Easton Rocket Sweda), Emma (Shay Rudolph), and Max (Mason Shea Joyce) who naturally do not wish to see their parent’s union dissolved.

Certainly, there is nothing better for children than the recently received grandfather clock. This is a family heirloom but for some unknown reason the hands can be turned backward meaning that time could be reversed this is what the youngest child in the family, Taylor learns.

The first half drags in because it is Taylor who is the bearer of the knowledge of the clock and its’ unusual powers. He is stuck at the same point in time where he seeks to make his parents avoid actions that have a high risk of making them jake up, such as the event when he prevents his mother from becoming more intimately involved with the male acquaintance she works with.

In the second half of the film, Taylor informs his siblings about the clock and together, they form a bond that works towards saving their parents from going through a wrenching separation.

The Present is marketed towards families with children and is about some kids coming together to preserve their family unit. The plot is something that we have probably watched in some old Nickelodeon or Disney movies with the additional twist that one of the kids, Taylor is mute and does not like being touched. He probably has some form of autism, but the film does not explain his behavior in any detail.

Even though the movie aims at a child audience the film has a few shots which are inappropriate for the younger audience. One of the characters a young boy’s mother is shown in a scene allowing her gaze to wander and stare at a man’s chest, for instance. Another primary character in the movie Emma has to kiss her school friend who tells her he is subsidizing for a kind of activity, showing her his pack of condoms. Young teen parents might not have any reservations about these clips, but those with kids below the age of 12 might have some cause to be uneasy.

While The Present is undeniably a good action flick, family audiences might not enjoy the film for a number of reasons, one of which is the sexual connotations present throughout the film. There’s also a scene in which one of the parents is talking about his marriage to some consenting body, I think it was trust issues or something around those lines. This wouldn’t be a problem if this was just a rom com film but cos it’s a kid’s movie, I was shocked to know the writer focused so much on these scenes instead of the important ones that concern the target audience.

Even if it’s only hypothetical, if I had that opportunity, I’d send an email to the people who made this film and sigh in agony whilst informing them to beware of the copyright council. Tell them to stop right when they are about to produce the add on that saw no originality or purpose whatsoever.

That said, the film is not all that terrible. Family bonding is nice and so is the script which is not overly sweet and emotional as it could have been. But in an overall sense, it’s over an hour long, generous cast gets to say a lot of bland words and act poor wishful thinking stories for the kids who are perhaps undergoing their own parents getting divorced.

If The Present ignores all realistic nuances and prefers to depict a utopia, then the younger audience would have been more suitable Time cannot be rewound, our mistakes or those committed by other people. But there’s plenty of scope to move ahead in life and make a better future using past memories. This would have been a much truer and more realistic conclusion for The Present than the one that senselessly ends the story.

It’s painfully obvious, I’m afraid that The Present is not a good movie. It drowns in the same old patterns and fails to create any magic inspired by other masterpieces. It is tolerable, so long one does not ponder about it later. But then again, if you are anything like the author, you will regret watching a movie that offers no respect to the viewers and wasted so much of your time.

For more movies like The Present Visit 123Movies.

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