'Moms' Night Out' Movie Review

"Moms' Night Out" Movie Review: 2 Stars

by Roger Moore

Faith-based films have become commonplace this year. But faith-based comedies? Comedies that work?

That's still a very short historical list -- the George Burns blockbuster "Oh God" and Andy Griffith's "Angel in my Pocket" are the only two that come to mind.

"Moms' Night Out" doesn't join their ranks.

A PG-rated romp that never romps, "Moms' Night Out" lacks the jokes, sight gags, pacing and performances that laughs are made of.

A funny movie doesn't have to leave you with a "Hangover" to give you the giggles. But when you're sending three mothers out for an "epic" night on the town and you're abstaining from alcohol, profanity and jokes about sex, you'd better make sure the gags you do include are killer and that you've got a cast that can land those laughs.

Sarah Drew plays Ally, a stressed-out mother of three preschool age tykes, a "Mommy blogger" who brags online about being "a clean freak" who can "actually feel the house getting dirty," but whose reality doesn't measure up to that. Her house is a wreck, her husband (Sean Astin) is always traveling and the kids are barely under control. And every so often, she loses it.

She's unhappy, so her husband urges her to take a night for herself. She talks her mother-of-two pal Izzy (Logan White) and, oddly, that icon of motherly virtue, her pastor's wife (Patricia Heaton), into a girls night out "to remember."

Izzy's simpering, helpless husband (Robert Amaya) is lost without her calling the shots. Ally's husband has a regular Saturday night video game date with an irresponsible, kid-hating pal (Kevin Downes). And Sondra, the preacher's wife, is fending off a full-fledged revolt from her rebellious teenage daughter (Sammi Hanratty), who is threatening to sneak out while mom's away. This could get interesting -- "Adventures in Babysitting" interesting. Except it doesn't.

As the night runs from losing their reservation at a restaurant to losing their phones to losing their minivan to losing a baby and their husbands losing their minds, overwhelmed by simple child care, "Moms' Night Out" sets itself up for laughs that it rarely delivers.

For 45 minutes, the writing/directing Erwin brothers ("October Baby," the abortion drama, was theirs) can't manage so much as a smile, mainly due to the blandness of their leading lady. Drew ("Grey's Anatomy") is good at whiny, not good at amusingly whiny.

Then we hit the tattoo parlor, and "Moms' Night Out" starts to find its funny bone. Christian singer Manwell Reyes is hilarious as a goofball receptionist, and country singer Trace Adkins kills as a brassy, no nonsense biker-tattoo artist named Bones. Bones, who has a hint of hell-raiser about him, thinks he knows the straight-laced Sondra from somewhere.

"Bonnaroo?"

"No."

"Lollapalooza?"

"No."

"Live Aid?"

"No."

With missed communications, a lost parakeet and a lot of scenes of manic women, shrieking at cops, a stoner and a British cabbie, "Moms' Night Out" gets up a head of steam, for a few minutes anyway.

The very best gag suggests a more promising direction the film might have taken. Heaton's Sondra panics when empty beer bottles are left on their table at a bowling alley. She can't have her parishioners thinking she drinks. A whole night of a "perfect" preacher's wife/mom trying to protect her reputation might have been funny. A few simple sermonettes about motherhood and parenting work. But the Erwins learn that "sermonizing is easy; comedy is hard."

 

MPAA rating: PG (for mild thematic elements and some action). Running time: 1:54.

"Moms' Night Out" is a comedy starring Patricia Heaton. When a few moms want a night out, alone and without the kids, all they have to do is get their husbands to watch the kids. But will all go according to plan?

 

'Moms' Night Out' Movie Review & Movie Trailer