3447. Yes Day (2021)

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Edgar Ramírez, Jenna Ortega

Director: Miguel Arteta

Running Time: 89 mins

Yes Day is an American film about a mother and father who, having always said no to their children, decide to give them a ‘Yes Day’, 24 hours where they must say yes to their every request.

I really expected Yes Day to be one of those shrill, plastic family comedies where gross-out humour and a wafer-thin story trumps all else. However, while it’s still no masterpiece, I was delighted with how much fun I had with this movie.

While its premise, letting kids do whatever they want for 24 hours, seems like the perfect recipe for screechy, irritating hijinks, Yes Day somehow manages to turn that into a genuinely heartfelt and fun-loving story, complete with thoroughly likable characters.

The parents, played by Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramírez, are level-headed enough for you to sympathise with them, while the kids, played by Jenna Ortega, Julian Lerner and Everly Carganilla, are equally normal and charismatic enough for you to like them.

As a result, you don’t find yourself rooting for or against either side when it comes to the inevitable chaos that unfolds on the kids’ ‘Yes Day’, and it’s actually a lot more fun to just sit back and watch that chaos hit the fan.

Admittedly, the massive water balloon fight is a little overblown, but otherwise the film manages to keep its feet relatively on the ground, building towards a finale with a really nice message about the importance of family responsibility, and letting your hair down every once in a while.

Yes Day isn’t an all-time classic of family comedy, but it’s a movie to sit down and enjoy with all the family, thanks to its thoroughly likable performances, lively story and kind-hearted messages. It’s never screechy or annoying, just a bucket of simple, chaotic fun, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.2 overall.