Netflix’s Yes Day – More Forgettable Family Fare (Early Review)

Family films have always been a refuge for families to escape the grind and spend some quality time together. Regardless of their quality, that unifying ability is undeniable. That being said, when they work, they really work and when they don’t, they really don’t. It just seems like this genre has gotten stagnant for the most part as it doesn’t try to be anything more than something that appeals to the lowest denominator by offering the same story threads with the same humor and gags. The general mindset appears to be that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it but that’s not very encouraging. While these are sure to still be a hit for some viewers, simply being subject to more of the same once again, after countless other films have done the same and even better, this formula unfortunately results in a torturous watch that saps any potential fun away pretty fast as whatever fun could have been had just gets old very fast behind a highly-predictable story. Yes Day is one of those films. Fortunately, a running time of 89 minutes doesn’t ask for too much.

If the film’s title and/or promotional material haven’t already given it away, Yes Day follows the Torres family and their many antics over the course of their first family Yes Day, a day where for 24 hours the kids make the rules. Suffice it to say that it would be easier said than done for Allison (Garner) and Carlos (Ramírez) Torres which certainly went against the film going out of its way to show how fun they were individually and then together. However, things changed once the two had kids, Katie (Ortega), Nando (Julian Lerner), and Ellie (Everly Carganilla). Their priorities changed as a result of family life but as far as their kids knew, they were the ones holding them back from fun by essentially being their parents. There was clearly was a disconnect there as Allison and Carlos were at their wits’ end when it came to what to do about their children though maybe it wasn’t as wide as they thought. Cue the yes day, a day in which they found themselves roped into as a means to repair their relationship with their children.

With the kids now in charge, Allison and Carlos were merely passengers on whatever journey was planned for them, leading up to a supposed grand finale. From there, belief must be suspended as the hijinks ensued in a contrived universe where they could easily happen with little consequence. Meanwhile, as much as Yes Day was about the novelty of seeing the parents being put through the ringer, it was about them proving to themselves and their kids that they were more than just authoritarians, especially Allison. This journey was arguably a little more personal for her which meant that she may have been trying a little too hard to prove it though there was undeniably some heart behind her motivation for doing so. The obvious subtext of the latter occasionally got in the way of the antics, the film still found a decent balance between the two. In the end, while the predictable nature of the film and its lessons definitely didn’t help, the real killer was the cringey and tone deaf dialog and the unfunny humor.

Ultimately, the best part of Yes Day was its performances with Garner’s Allison being the standout. The material may not have been the best though the campy energy she brought to the role was infectious thus some of the sentimentality and humor still sort of works. Ramírez could never quite fit as Carlos as the character was on the thin side and was mostly a plot device for Allison. Nevertheless, the two still had decent chemistry. Ortega’s angsty teen Katie and Lerner’s middle child Nado was fine but the real standout in terms of the kids was Carganilla’s Ellie who was absolutely the cutest.

At the end of the day, Yes Day is just more of the same when it comes to family fare though it isn’t even the best version of this same story. It won’t be for everyone but those looking for something to distract younger audiences, this may very well work. They’ll just forget everything about it once the credits roll.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.