Last week I finally got around to seeing Instant Family.
If you’re not familiar with the movie, it follows a childless couple who decide to adopt out of foster care. As expected, crazy hijinks ensue.
I have to say that I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It has a lot of humor, while still (pretty) accurately representing what it’s like to be a foster parent.
One thing to be aware of is that this movie is definitely from the foster parent perspective; it’s about how the foster parents fight through the process and (of course) come to learn that their kids are what was missing from their lives. If it was written from the foster child perspective it would be a very different (and probably much less funny) movie. From the perspective of the parents, their lives are being turned upside down because they now have three kids with behaviors that they aren’t prepared for and can’t control. From the perspective of the kids, their lives are turned upside down because they’ve been moved to a new home and don’t know what’s going to happen to them; almost everything in their lives is outside of their control.
I don’t know if I would show this movie to (especially younger) foster kids – as I said, it’s not aimed at them and could be upsetting – but for people considering adoption from the foster care system, or just enjoy a good movie, I highly recommend it.