Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth

MAX EMBARASSING

Date and Venue 17 January 2010 @ 1.00pm | Vancity Cinema, Vancouver

Reviewer Ed Farolan

Max Embarrassing is a humourous film about Max, who, whenever he tries to do something right, it somehow almost always goes wrong. He also has an embarrassing mother who has the unfortunate habit of always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. 

Max likes his classmate Ofelia. but when she comes over to visit, it ends in disaster. Things go from bad to worse as he tries to reunite her with her estranged father who's a criminal. His trying to help her embarasses her more because all her friends find out that her father is a jailbird. Likewise, his interfering although well-intentioned mother isn't much help either, especially when it comes to her public performance at the church's Christmas concert. As far as Max is concerned, she's just plain embarrassing.

There are a number of hilarious scenes in the film. In one scene, Max's best friend, Hassan, tells him that there's a better way of straightening his teeth without the use of a brace. That was funny: Max is put in a contraption as though he were in a sci-fi film (see film still on the sidebar).

This is an amusing coming-of-age film meant for young and old. Children of all ages from 9 to 90 will surely enjoy the surprises of this funny script, It will surely remind us of the embarassing moments of our childhood and youth, and how the moral of this film reflects the adage "what goes around, comes around". We felt embarassed as kids when our parents did things that made us squirm, and then, as parents, we get the same treatment from our kids who feel embarassed for some things we do thatl are embarassing to them.

I enjoyed the film. The only thing that bothered me and I guess for all non-Danish speakers who watch this film is you spend most of the time reading the subtitles instead of looking at the characters of the film. The film would have been better off dubbed to English rather than subtitled.

This film is the first screening in a three month Family Film Series, with other films on March 21; and a third film TBA in May.  The 12th Annual Reel 2 Real Festival is from April 9 - 16, 2010.