Palmer Parent Guide

Small town Louisiana isn’t the easiest place to find work under the best of circumstances, but for Eddie Palmer (Justin Timberlake), it’s nearly impossible. Once admired as a past high school football star, Palmer’s fortunes have changed for the worse. An arrest for a violent robbery, a subsequent 12 year prison term, and strict parole conditions mean that Palmer is back in town to live with his grandmother, Vivian Palmer (June Squibb), and find a job. Complicating the picture, Vivian seems to be a part-time caregiver for Sam (Ryder Allen), a young boy who lives with her when his mother and her boyfriend disappear. Palmer doesn’t have a lot of time for Sam, who has a unique sense of gender, and whose favorite TV show is Penelope’s Flying Princess Club. As Palmer spends more time with the child, he realizes that even though he doesn’t understand Sam, he wants the best for him. Although Sam’s teacher, Maggie (Alisha Wainwright) is willing to help, life isn’t easy for a convicted felon and a boy who wants to wear fairy wings and princess dresses to school…

I’m willing to admit that Palmer has a paint-by-numbers feel to it. The unlikely duo, the relevant social issues, the small rural setting…there are a lot of movies running different versions of this script. That said, the reason it’s so prevalent is because, properly done, it still kind of works. The casting is an important part of keeping this particular bundle of clichés on the rails, and Justin Timberlake and Ryder Allen are certainly doing some heavy lifting in that department. Alisha Wainwright is also remarkably good in what is a fairly basic role.

Of course, there’s always a catch. In this case, profanity. There’s a lot of cussing going around, notably 33 extreme profanities which make this less than ideal for younger viewers. If that’s not enough, there’s also a lot of drinking and smoking, as well as references to drug abuse. Most of this negative content comes in a specific context which clearly shows violence, drugs, and dishonesty in a negative light, and the moral lessons are fairly obvious. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to want to show this to your middle-schooler.

Despite appearances, Palmer isn’t a single-issue movie beating the drum about gender identity or sexual orientation. This is a movie about loving and caring for people even when you don’t necessarily understand why their values and aspirations differ from yours. It’s about caring for your neighbors, the importance of family, our individual capacity for redemption, and of course, the power of love. You’ve basically seen this movie before. But it’s still heartfelt and sincere, and if you don’t mind rehashing some older ideas (and sitting through some negative content), it’s a nice little feel-good film.