Moms' Night Out review

Sunday night, when I should have been sleeping, I was lying in bed reading reviews on the movie my mom and I had just seen: Moms' Night Out.

I was a bit riled by the reviews I was reading. But first, a little about the movie.

Directed by the same brother duo that put out October Baby, Moms' Night Out is the story of a harried mother of youngsters who is on the verge of an emotional breakdown. Strike that. She does have an emotional breakdown. Her husband comes home to find the house in an absolute mess and his wife hiding away in the closet, holding an empty bag of chocolates. "I ate this whole thing." (I thought that part was hilarious.)

With her husband's encouragement, she decides to take a night off--a mom's night out with two church friends. But, as is typical with moms (especially when they leave their kids at home with their husbands), it isn't easy for them to unplug. And when they do, chaos ensues.

Basically, Mom's Night Out puts real mom life on the screen, throws in some action packed craziness, and ends with an encouraging message to mothers that you are not a failure and your job is important.

I also thought it clever that it leaned heavily on the current mommy blogger movement.

The secular critics though are obviously not stay-at-home Christian moms needing affirmation.

 USA Today criticized the main character for being a "weepy, complaining clean freak."

Is she a weepy, complaining clean freak? I suppose so. But she is human and real.

"Alyson ultimately realizes . . . that God loves her. Somehow she didn't know this before," reads the review. "Lovely sentiments, but Jesus might prefer that Allyson work on being less of a pouty whiner" (USA Today).

This movie was intended to affirm and encourage moms, and in order to do this, it showed the inner real thoughts of moms--the "oh my word, my kids are eating raw egg and sticking their heads in toilets and coloring on walls and I can't do this!" thoughts. I cannot speak for Jesus (especially when it comes to rating movies!). But, at base level, I think God is glorified when moms are encouraged to keep up the good work.

Another review calls Moms' Night Out "depressingly regressive and borderline dangerous" because it "peddles archaic notions of gender roles in the name of wacky laughs" (Roger Ebert).

I'm sorry, but can I laugh at that?

Or maybe it's too depressing a reflection on our culture to laugh at.

It goes right along with the review that said the movie "is really all about moms staying home, where, according to this movie, they apparently belong. . . . Allyson learns strict lessons about a mother's place in the world" (NY Daily News).

That is not the message the movie conveys, by the way. Rather, stay-at-home moms are the audience, and so that is already assumed, not preached.

And amidst all the other reviews, there was the man that criticized the movie because it didn't clearly present the Gospel.

Sigh. You can't win when making a faith-based movie, can you?

Like all Christian movies, everyone--believers and nonbelievers alike--will have their own opinion on the movie-making quality, acting, spiritual overtones, movie premise.

But this girl gives it a thumbs up.

By the way, I just read an article that quotes extensively from one of the directors/writers. If you want to read what I just wrote, but better written and straight from the criticism recipient's mouth, go here: The Blaze.