I am not sure how I completely missed a Ben Stiller Christmas movie. Nutcrackers premiered on Hulu on November 29. And somehow I just found out about it. Either the marketing is bad or I really do live under a rock.
Mike Maxwell’s (Stiller) sister and her husband recently passed away. Now he has to travel to her farm to sign the paperwork for her four boys to go to foster care. Unfortunately, the social worker, Gretchen (Linda Cardellini), is having trouble finding a home for the boys because it is so close to Christmas. As Mike tries to find someone to adopt the unruly kids, he finds that one of the boys has rewritten a version of the Nutcracker ballet. In addition, the boys are lovely ballet dancers since their mother was a prima ballerina at one point in her life and owned a dance studio before her death. The family decides to put on the show in order to find a new family. Little does Mike know that they have found their family.
Nutcrackers is one of those movies where you are supposed to dislike characters. Mike is very selfish. To the point that he doesn’t actually seem to mourn his sister’s death. He just wants to get rid of the kids and move on with his life. The kids themselves are, in the beginning, awful. They break into a closed carnival and destroy some of the attractions. They run around unsupervised causing all sorts of havoc. But they are also grieving children that no one pays attention to. All they need is a good adult figure to care about them and listen to them and not simply bark rules at them.
Interestingly, this movie felt a lot like movies from the 80s or 90s. Something like Overboard or Problem Child. I’m not sure if the throwback feeling of Nutcrackers will be a turn off for people but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, myself. There were even a few tears shed at the end.
Rating: Yes, The Nutcracker does need some updating.