Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is a staple of children’s literature, so perhaps it’s surprising that it took Hollywood more than 40 years to get a movie adaptation off the ground. But in many ways, Alexander is just as unsuccessful as other adaptations of awfully short books like The Polar Express and Mars Needs Moms; there’s not enough meat in the books themselves, and the additions from whoever wrote these scripts aren’t only needless, but they’re lazy and somewhat painful to watch. Arguably, Alexander is not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad movie, but it’s much too close.
The concept of the film quickly moves past the book; the day in question occurs quickly so we can get to the real conflict, as created by writer Rob Lieber and director Miguel Arteta. After Alexander’s day goes so badly and his family doesn’t seem to care, he wishes for them to all experience a terrible day of their own. The film isn’t ready to automatically confirm his wish actually comes true, but his parents (Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner, who lift this up from being a Disney Channel movie of the week) and older siblings do end up having a uniquely awful day, all at the same time. Dad’s job interview goes poorly, the book Mom’s pushing at her publishing company gets a ghastly misprint, the sister’s opening-day performance in the big show (Peter Pan, and the Disney version, even though there’s a preexisting stage musical with other songs) goes badly, and the brother’s driving test is a cataclysmic failure. But in the end, they all learn to love each other more, and Alexander learns (kind of) that his day may suck, but he can still probably chill out if everyone doesn’t freak out sufficiently.
You can consider that a spoiler, but really, the ending is so clear and predictable, there’s little point in pretending a surprise is around the corner. Carell and Garner do their able best to imbue the picture with life, even as they basically just do the exact minimum that’s expected of actors of their caliber and personality. (Would you believe that Garner plays a driven and determined woman trying to balance work and home life? It’s true! And yes, Carell is doing a variation on the henpecked suburbanite! Try not to act shocked!) No matter how much charm the cast brings to the proceedings, they can’t help the fact that this script is lifeless from its pointless in medias res opening to the inexplicable, not-so-family-friendly final joke. (Were you hoping a Disney movie might feature male strippers? HOPE NO LONGER.)
The message of Alexander is admirable, and there are a handful of witty lines sprinkled throughout the mercifully brief 81-minute runtime, but honestly, those moments are so few and far between that they stick out and become frustrating. A movie this lacking in general intelligence and logic doesn’t deserve to have randomly funny bits of dialogue; if anything, those bits are just hints of a better story this film’s not interested in or able to tell.
A/V
As with Disney’s other new releases, the quality of the audio and video are predictably fine. The bright colors of the adventure, as we bounce around from a book reading to an interview at a Google-style web startup to a generic high school to a Benihana wannabe, are captured adequately, as are the sound effects. Come, and listen well to the sound of a kangaroo kicking Steve Carell in the chest. Such clarity of image and audio!
Extras
There’s very little here in terms of extras, which isn’t terribly surprising. Even the video diary, by Ed Oxenbould (Alexander himself), is so brief that it’s difficult to understand why it landed here. (Also, inexplicably, most of the diary avoids focusing on Oxenbould’s co-stars. Neither Carell nor Garner show up here.) There’s also a music video, brief blooper reel, behind-the-scenes featurette on how the Australian-themed birthday party in the third act came together, and a short look at the Judith Viorst book with insight offered by the author and her now-adult son who served as the inspiration back in the early 1970s.
Overall
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is an uninspired and lackluster effort from Walt Disney Pictures; only if you consider yourself a die-hard fan of the film should you spend 20 bucks on this sparse Blu-ray.
