The Sitter Blu-ray Review
Slacker Noah (Jonah Hill) just wants his mum to be happy, so when it looks as though her big night out might be cancelled due to her friend’s lack of childcare Noah reluctantly steps in as babysitter. It’s clear from the get-go that Noah isn’t the average babysitter, he’s irresponsible, he’s rude and he swears in front of the kids. A lot. Not that the kids mind as they are far from average themselves, there’s the unwittingly knowing and over-made up Blithe (Landry Bender), sexually repressed Slater (Max Records) and the angry, adopted Rodrigo (Kevin Harnandez) from South America. When Noah gets a call from his skank girlfriend, asking him to head over to a party and pick her up a bag of coke, he sensibly decides to do just that….with kids in tow. So begins a chaotic adventure through urban nightlife, involving ruthless drug dealers, a very camp gang, a diamond heist and….er, Noah’s rubbish dad.
The Sitter is somewhat reminiscent of School of Rock, but instead of Jack Black as an inappropriate teacher you have Jonah Hill as an inappropriate babysitter who is surprised to find he learns a valuable lesson from the kids he originally couldn’t stand to be around, and of course the kids learn a little something about themselves too. While The Sitter may not be as funny, or as charming, as School of Rock it mercifully shares one other characteristic: the children are not annoying. They are funny and endearing and you don’t hate them, always a bonus as child actors often veer towards saccharine or irritating! The young actors in The Sitter are flawless, their lines are delivered perfectly, they’re characters are interesting (although Rodrigo feels like a lazy stereotype) and together they are one of the funnier elements of the film.
Jonah Hill plays Jonah Hill. Again. Having seen Moneyball it is clear that Hill is a good actor who can do far more than the comic slacker, so it’s a little tiresome to see him in the same sort of role for what seems like the hundredth time (see Superbad, Knocked Up, 21 Jump Street, Cyrus etc). There’s nothing to critique about his performance, he is very good at playing the amusing slacker, if he weren’t he wouldn’t do it over and over. But for the audience his performance may be a little repetitious.
That’s not to say the film doesn’t have anything going for it. Sam Rockwell is excellent as the bizarre and dangerous Karl and his gang are, quite literally, fabulous. Noah is a likeable, if ridiculous, character but, as always with this sort of film, it’s the kids that steal the show. The Sitter is very much in the same vein as recent successful box office comedies, it’s silly, obscene in parts and occasionally very funny.
Far-fetched? Yes. Original. Not especially. Amusing? Sometimes. The Sitter is a great film if you don’t want anything too challenging or edgy. But don’t expect anything out of the ordinary.
Lindsay Emerson