A cinema release without any prior reviews on a few major websites?! How about that! I gotta say, <em>'The Present'</em> surprised me big time! The lack of awareness that I had for it prior to watching (to be expected based on the earlier mentioned, evidently), a bog-standard poster and a meh-sounding premise meant that I wasn't expecting much from this 2024 flick. However, I had a seriously good time viewing it! It's, in my opinion, a well crafted movie and, unexpectedly, quite amusing, it is also extremely touching when all is said and done. Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear make for a solid onscreen pairing, while the trio of youngsters in Shay Rudolph, Easton Rocket Sweda and Mason Shea Joyce - even if the latter has less to work with - all give good performances. One bad thing about me leaving the first review is if everyone else dislikes this, so here's hoping that a barrage low-rated reviews aren't forthcoming!😆 Hey-ho, I had fun with it and that's all I can say!

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There's something quite engaging about Easton Rocket Sweda's "Taylor" character in this quite enjoyable and fast-moving family fantasy. He is a young man who loathes being touched and who communicates via an audio-board or by using an Etch-a-Sketch. Indulged? Well that was my first thought, then we meet the family and maybe the kid has the right idea. Anyway, his grandfather's bust old clock arrives and it's put in his basement where he tinkers around with it and gets it, somewhat miraculously, to work. His parents (solid efforts from Isla Blair and Greg Kinnear) have summonsed the family to a dinner that evening to announce their trial separation, but "Taylor" has discovered that the now repaired timepiece allows him to manipulate time - within a twenty four hour period. He reckons that he can change the circumstances of his mum and dad's struggling marriage - but every time he thinks he's on the cusp of averting familial disaster, well we are soon back to square one. He decides to enlist the help of his loved-up sister "Emma" (Shay Rudolph) the then finally their brother "Max" (Mason Shea Joyce - wasn't he in "McFly"?). The more they meddle, though, the messier things get as the grown ups all lurch from one near miss to an other. Old Father Time is starting to get a bit bored with the repetitive nature of this story (not just him) and when the kids realise that they can't keep doing this indefinitely, things have to come to an head. It works quite well for about an hour with quite a quirky storyline and the five main characters having some fun with almonds, a shiny red sports car and some fake snow but thereafter the story starts to recycle itself once too often as we head to what was always a fairly predictable conclusion. It's an easy film to watch, but not one you will remember and probably not one that needs to be seen in a cinema.

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