Better than I expected

Rating: 9/10 (3 July 2015)

We each carry our own stories into movies about childhood. Somehow I expected Riley's emotions to be in conflict rather than genuinely trying to keep her on track as she grows. I also somehow expected her parents to be less caring than they actually were. This story is, instead, a profile of an emotionally healthy couple and their only child living through a bit of a rough patch.
Our adult daughter and her 4, 6, and 8 year old children saw the movie with us and all of them liked it a lot. Not all the action was wrapped in deep thought - there were several laugh-out-loud moments that worked even for the 4 year old. None of the kids got restless or talkative, a good measure of their absorption. However, I would be concerned about sensitive teens seeing the series of setbacks in the movie. They went over the heads of our young ones but a 15 year old girl may not be so sanguine.
I liked that the last five minutes or so of the movie came after the resolution but were not an anticlimax at all... they were many of the funniest scenes in the movie. That gave me time to dry my eyes inconspicuously.