refreshingly astute Hollywood comedy

Rating: 8/10 (30 September 2013)

"We're the Millers" is that rarest of cinematic creatures - a high-concept Hollywood comedy that actually works.
Jason Sudeikis from "Saturday Night Live" plays a small-time drug dealer who's sent by his skeevy drug lord (Ed Helms) to Mexico to pick up a shipment of marijuana. In order to avoid arousing any unwanted suspicion at the border, David rents an oversized RV and hires a motley crew of acquaintances to pose as his all-American family. These include a down-on-her-heels stripper posing as his wife (Jennifer Aniston); a hard-edged, homeless girl standing in as his daughter (Emma Roberts); and a big-hearted dork from the neighborhood assuming the role of his son (Will Poulter).
The story is fraught with any number of comical misadventures as David and his unlikely troupe encounter armed-to-the-teeth bad guys and another family (led by Kathryn Hahn and "Parks and Recreation's" Nick Offerman) in an equally ostentatious RV along the way.
What separates "We're the Millers" from so many other recent studio-manufactured comedies is the sharpness of the writing and the appealing nature of the characters. The script maintains a deft balance between subtle wit and blatant slapstick, modern-day crudity and old-fashioned sweetness. And even in those rare moments when the movie jumps the track, it's quick to climb right back on and head on to its destination.
Much of the credit for the movie's success goes to the actors who create tremendously likable characters, all with their own comic quirks and eccentricities, but all rooted, at least to some extent, in real life. The real scene-stealer is Poulter whose spot-on portrayal of a lovable nerd serves as the beating heart of the movie.
So effective in fact are the actors in getting us to root for the characters that the movie can play up the whole corny and sentimental notion of what it means to be a family and get away with it. Thus, it manages to keep its subversive cred while at the same time warming the heart. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment when you get right down to it.