The Present

The Parent Trap meets Rashomon meets Groundhog Day in an overly ambitious, and frankly muddled, conceptual premise for this charmless family film.

Elevated by Jay Martel’s high-concept screenplay, which refuses to talk down to its audience, The Present is a peppy family adventure that delivers a formally adventurous structure and a recurring dog poo gag. Something for everyone then.

The film’s forgettable fluff, but perfectly genial, and it’s hard to imagine many hardcore objections to curling up with it.

It’s mildly surprising to see Kinnear and Fisher, both borderline A-listers or at least B+ listers, in treacly dreck like this, but maybe they have legal expenses to pay off.

The film loses a whole star, though, for an unbelievably distasteful gag about food allergies that, because of the nature of the film, just keeps coming back.

The Present has parallels to The Parent Trap, Groundhog Day, and numerous other family sci-fi, time-travel adventures, and it uses the concept well to gradually reveal more about the lives of both parents and each of the kids in turn.

…it’s got that genial, eighties feel&#59; if you like Back to the Future, Home Alone, Groundhog Day, Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap or other feel-good fantasies, then The Present has exactly what you’re looking for…

Ditter makes a Disney Channel-type of viewing experience instead, going broad and borderline obnoxious with this feature, which establishes adult concerns but offers childish antics.

The Present is pleasant and affable enough to be fairly entertaining. The cast have good chemistry together.

The film keeps a good pace through its runtime, has solid cinematography, and is entertaining, but it could have used more exposition to raise the stakes.