This past weekend, I had the pleasure of going with my mom and mother-in-law and my sister to watch Moms’ Night Out I enjoyed both the movie and the time away together with “just the girls”.
I didn’t know a whole lot about the movie before going but was intrigued after watching the trailer a few times and reading about how excited others were about it after getting a chance to pre-screen it. (Which I just barely missed out on twice!) I usually like going to a movie knowning as little as I can about it so I can enjoy it as unbiasedly as possible.
{So if you are like that and would rather just go watch it first and read reviews and opinions on it second, you might want to go and peruse some of My Recipes or other posts before reading further.}
The first part of the movie starts with Ally, the main character played by Sarah Drew, as a frantic, obsessive-clean-freak mom who basically “has it all” but still isn’t happy. Although I can’t relate to her level of “clean-freakishness” I easily related to her frazzled, overwhelmed, can’t-get-anything-together state of life. It was almost creepy how closely she resembled me and my day-to-day life as a mom of littles in the house. She even made the frustrated snorts, and “GRRRSSS!” and “HMMPPPFFFSS!” that I do when the poo hits the fan and all chaos breaks lose.
I was chuckling throughout the whole first part with Ally trying to get the kids ready – by herself as her husband was out of town – to get to church. Again, the whole church scene was eerily familiar. I had a hearty laugh during the bathroom scene.
The only thing that could have made that one better is if she would have been trying to change a mother load blow-out diaper at the same time. (Where she would have been wearing a white dress and had to come out of the bathroom and sit in the church congregation with poop stuck on her back – unbeknownst to her of course.) Still, she nailed the level of breaking point insanity that a stubborn towel dispenser can cause at the end of a long day – or even the beginning of one – with that crazy-woman desperate chuckle-cry. I think they might have snuck into my house to obtain some of the noises and footage ideas for this movie. (Tangent: Do you like her bag she’s using in that scene? You can enter to win that same bag at CatholicMom.com by May 16!)
The second part of the movie – the main event of their sacred “Moms’ Night Out” event didn’t hold the same real-life draw as the intro – but of course it wasn’t meant to. It was more like a combination of all the times everything has gone terribly wrong or could go wrong – rolled into one long night of ridiculously far-fetched – yet comical – disaster one after another. And yet, as far-fatched as it all was – it’s still something that could happen in real life. When you become a parent you often find yourself in all sorts of awkward situations you never thought you’d ever be in, and you realize that anything is possible. (Well maybe everything except for the billions of police cars at the end. Maybe.)
As one crazy disaster lead to another, the moms found themselves in a place they never in a billion years could have imagined themselves in and it seemed that their hoped-for night of fun and escape was a total and complete failure – just like they felt that they – as moms – were also failures. The interesting thing is that once they had hit rock bottom and had literally no where else to go, they finally had time to see themselves for what they really are – GOOD moms, each in their own unique way. I won’t go into the details but I’ll say if you are one of those sentimental types who tears up at Hallmark card commercials – you’ll want to get the tissues ready for the resolution in this scene and a great pep talk given by someone you wouldn’t expect.
The movie ends in true family-movie “Disney” style with the emergency situation resolved and everyone smiling and clapping together and “living happily ever after”. The main character, Ally, and the other moms realize anew how much they love their families and how important their roles as moms truly are – even if life as a mom is crazy and extremely chaotic!
So – to recap:
Moms’ Night Out is simply an enjoyable “family” comedy. I’m not sure we’d watch it with our younger kids but I might watch it again with my ten-year old daughter and my almost-sixteen-year-old sister enjoyed it. (Although, I hope we didn’t completely scare her away from the prospect of motherhood forever.)
I laughed – out loud – of my own accord several times while watching this and if I were the crying-type I probably would have had to wipe my eyes a little at the touching sentimental quotes throughout. I look forward to watching it again when I need a good commiserating laugh of healing and renewal at the end of a long day. A good long laugh is sometimes all you need to get up and get going again. And if you can’t laugh every now and then at all the crazy chaos that is your life then you have little hope of surviving it. 🙂
Watching Moms’ Night Out was kind of like watching all the great “mommy blogs”, Mother’s Day cards, and Pinterest mommy-encouragement quotes all in one movie – with a whole lot of relatable comedy to go along. I would say the only thing that caught me off guard was how overly [evangelical] Christian it is. It’s not every day you can go to the movie theatre and hear characters in a film talking about having faith in Jesus and letting Him be the one to help you during the chaotic moments (or years) of life. So if you do go watch it, just be prepared for some overly-sappy and cheesy lines and themes throughout. This is the only thing I wish I would have been more prepared for before going but it was still done tastefully enough.
All that said, I enjoyed Moms’ Night Out and recommend others to watch it and enjoy it!
If you are more of a reader than a movie-watcher, there is also a A Moms’ Night Out
