Ideal Home isn’t a great movie, but it’s also not the disgustingly sweet mess I was expecting from a story about a bickering couple who come together when a child is dropped into their lives. It helps that it’s filled with unapologetically selfish characters that it never tries to fully redeem and has an acerbic sense of humor.
Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd play the self-indulgent bickering couple, Erasmus and Paul, whose love comes from taunting each other. Coogan and Rudd do a great job making difficult characters believable, and it helps that they have chemistry. I can’t imagine these roles in the hands of lesser actors. The ten year old boy, Bill, who is dropped into the couple’s lives is played by Jack Gore, who does a decent job with his role, especially for a child actor. As would be expected from a child raised by a drug addict father, his past is dark and he has issues. And since this isn’t a serious movie, Bill doesn’t have the hard edge that would come from a child with such a disturbing past. He’s just a bit ornery.
I didn’t expect any of the characters to be completely fleshed out, so I wasn’t disappointed. The relationship between Bill and his grandfathers is a bit rushed but has moments of honest emotion. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Erasmus and Paul learn of Bill’s past. Rudd and Coogan’s reactions feel honest, as does the way they quickly brush reality to the side.
What I enjoyed about this movie is that it ends with the central characters having grown from the experience, but they’re not that far removed from who they were at the beginning.
If you can ignore huge plot holes, keep your expectations low, and enjoy your humor off center, you might enjoy Ideal Home.
