Daddy’s Home 2 Parent Guide

If two men vying for the affections of their children wasn’t enough, why not make it four? Since we met this fractured family in Daddy’s Home, Brad (Will Ferrell) and Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) have managed to figure out how to get along well enough to be in the same room together with their kids and Sara (Linda Cardellini), Brad’s wife and Dusty’s ex. Then the phone rings and Dusty hears the voice of his father Kurt (Mel Gibson) telling him he’s coming to visit for Christmas. Likewise, Brad’s dad Don (John Lithgow) is also checking in for the holidays, creating the perfect combination of “dyna” and “mite”.

The ubiquitous airport scene brings the male quartet together with an assortment of punches between the alphas and lip-kisses shared by the betas. It’s the template that will be used to milk every possible opportunity to juxtapose Kurt and Don’s child rearing philosophies as they spend time with their pooled collection of grandchildren and two mothers. Sara is mother to Dylan and Megan (Owen Vaccaro, Scarlett Estevez), both being Dusty’s offspring. Adrianna (Didi Costine), who would rather stare at her smartphone than be anywhere else, is the child of fashionista Karen (Alessandra Ambrosio), Dusty’s current wife. Finally, young Griffy (played by triplets Connor, Daphne and Dylan Wise) is Brad and Sara’s first child. Later we’ll add Roger to the mix (John Cena) playing Adrianna’s paternal father.

Moments after their arrival, Kurt determines the burgeoning bunch should spend Christmas in the mountains. After a tap on his smartphone (and a pitch for Airbnb) the crew loads into two SUVs headed for a large cabin where the bulk of the craziness will play out. Admittedly, a runaway Christmas-light-munching snow blower and a chainsaw felling of a disguised cell phone tower were two hijinks that brought deserved laughs.

Yet scenes of drunken kids making a mess of a nativity reenactment (not to mention their bickering parents), Grandpa Kurt recklessly handing Megan a shotgun so she can shoot a turkey and encouraging Dylan to go kiss and grope a young girl reminded me of what this plot’s biggest problem is: The kids are mere pawns within their parents’ whirlwind of self-discovery and ego-bashing.

Watching this film, and my surrounding audience’s reactions to it, convinces me that families are yearning for entertainment that will bring some joy to a very difficult year. But after crawling its way to the schmaltzy ending, the only happiness Daddy’s Home 2 presented seemed to be limited to the adult characters. While these narcissistic fathers and messed up moms celebrate their, at best, tenuous relationships with a song and dance number, their children have been subjected to possibly the worst Christmas ever. To avoid furthering the problem, do your kids a favor and leave them at home if you decide to see this movie.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.