By Paul Byrnes
YES DAY ★★★
Rated G, 89 minutes, Netflix exclusive
A “yes day” is one on which the parents say yes to any request from their children, within reason, for a period of 24 hours. In the movie, the rules include nothing in the future, nothing dangerous or illegal. The founding assumption is that parents get sick of always saying “no”, so a yes day restores balance and everyone has fun together.
Everly Carganilla as Ellie and Edgar Ramirez as Carlos in a scene from Yes Day.Credit: John P. Johnson/Netflix via AP
First surprise is the casting: Jennifer Garner plays the mother, Allison, with Edgar Ramirez as Carlos the father. He’s a Venezuelan actor better known for serious, action-oriented roles, so it’s odd to see him in something this wholesome. Garner has played many good moms. She’s active outside movies in causes for the welfare of children, so this film goes where her heart is. Even so, it’s less than challenging for her prodigious comic talents.
The Torres family are middling affluent, situated just where most corn-fed family films like to be — not too rich, but never poor. They live in a rambling timber house of classic American design in a safe neighbourhood.
Father runs a toy company, where his job is largely to say no. At home, he’s always the good guy when 14-year-old Katie (Jenna Ortega) wants to push the boundaries of permission. Julian Lerner plays Nando, the science-oriented little brother, with Everly Carganilla as cute little Ellie, aged about six. It goes without saying that the kids are all smart-mouthed, in the style of almost all comedy aimed at their ages.
Edgar Ramirez, Jenna Ortega, Everly Carganilla, Julian Lerner and Jennifer Garner in Yes Day.Credit: NETFLIX © 2021
Puerto Rican born-director Miguel Arteta worked with Garner on another family film in 2014 (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day). I suspect that he was her choice of director. She may be less active than she once was, but she’s still a major star.
The browning of the family, in terms of race, is also unusual. This kind of film is usually whiter than white. It might just as easily have been done with a black family, but mixing the races is still rare in “family” entertainment.
The other unusual aspect is the no-holds-barred edge to some of the comedy. As the yes day progresses, it moves from safety to danger, as the activities get out of hand.
Nando throws a nerd party at home that feels like a 10-year-old’s version of American Pie. Katie takes off to attend a prohibited music concert, entering a dangerous world where some of the older kids are clearly high. Of course, these scenes are intended as a warning to girls of Katie’s age, but it’s rare to see the real world impinging on what is basically a Christian-inflected, highly confected, sub-Disney kind of family flick.
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