Welcome to another edition of Albert wrestling with a film with adult content, but some genuinely good moments.  Today’s example is We’re the Millers (2013).  It is a film that I saw in the theaters when it came out, probably watched once since, but did not remember a lot about it.  The details that I did recall were not good.  The main character, David Clark (Jason Sudekis), is a local pot dealer who is forced by his boss, Brad Gurlinger (Ed Helms), to smuggle drugs into the country from Mexico.  To do so, David decides to form a fake family so as to look less conspicuous coming back over the border.  These include a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Anniston), Casey Mathis (Emma Roberts), a runaway street girl, and David’s hapless downstairs neighbor Kenny Rossmore (Will Poulter).  In another words, not a collection of people likely to be endearing to a practicing Catholic like me.  And while I do not necessarily recommend this movie, please read on for the nuggets that can be taken away from it.

You may have noticed in the previous paragraph that none of the people mentioned in We’re the Millers have the title last name.  The first of them that we meet is David, who is going about his day selling marijuana to various customers in the Denver area, including a mother with an infant.  So, yeah, not a great start.  Meanwhile, Rose is plying her trade at a local strip club.  They return home at roughly the same time, and we know this because they also live in the same building.  Further, they do not get along, the result of David destroying Rose’s favorite painting when she moved in, as we later learn.  After their testy exchange, we meet Kenny, a teenager who has been on his own since his mother left a week ago.  As they have their awkward conversation, Kenny notices Casey outside in the alleyway being accosted by a group of young men.  David pays it no mind, having seen Casey around and assuming she is homeless.  It is Kenny that goes to her rescue, but it is evident he is in over his head.  With a sigh, David attempts to help, only to have Kenny let it be known that David is a drug dealer.  He manages to get away for a moment, but eventually they catch up with him and steal all his money and product.  This means that he does not have the necessary funds to contribute to Brad.  In turn, instead of killing David out of hand, Brad tells his underling to go to Mexico and retrieve a “smidgen” or a “smidgen and a half” of marijuana.  David has no clue how to accomplish this, but Brad leaves him with no choice in the matter.  David is further incentivized by the $100,000 Brad agrees to pay upon completion of this task.  It helps, too, that he is supposed to return in a recreational vehicle (RV).  I say that this is helpful because while discussing this with Kenny that they are approached by tourists in an RV.  They are about the least likely people to be accused of smuggling anything, much less a load of weed.  This gives David the inspiration to form the Millers.  He first approaches Rose, telling her that he will give her $1,000 and a free trip to Mexico for her assistance.  She refuses.  He makes the same offer to Casey, and she is hesitant but willing.  Kenny rounds out the “children,” though David takes advantage of the young man’s naivete by not offering him any money.  That night, Rose returns home after quitting her job (for good reason) and finds an eviction notice on her apartment door.  Thus, she decides to go along with David and makes it onto the plane just as they are about to leave.  The RV is waiting for them at the airport in Tucson.  From here, they head south, and you can fill in all the fake family humor you can think of during this, or any portion of the trip.  The important part is that they get to the compound where they are supposed to receive their shipment.  David gives the name “Pablo Chacon” as Brad instructed.  However, instead of a “smidgen,” or a “smidgen and a half,” every available storage space is packed with marijuana.  This makes it a much more serious offense should they be caught.  And this is nearly exactly what happens when they get to the border.  What saves them is a group of refugees attempting to get into the United States that were hiding under the RV, unbeknownst to David and company.  Still, once they are in the United States is when their troubles begin.  It starts when David overheats the engine on a steep incline.  They are saved by the apparently straight-laced Fitzgerald family in their own RV.  This is particularly true for dad Don (Nick Offerman), who is an agent for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).  Yet, this is only apparent because David and Rose have a strange encounter with Don and his wife, Edie (Kathryn Hahn), in their tent.  The next morning, they are dropped off at the garage where the Millers’ RV has been fixed.  Unfortunately, they find the real Pablo Chacon waiting for them.  This time, it is Rose’s adult-themed moves that provides the opportunity to escape.  In the process, though, Kenny is bitten by a spider where, um, the sun does not shine.  This means a stint in the hospital and a growing impatient David.  His initial move is to leave everyone, especially when Brad increases his reward to $500,000.  Yet, he only gets part way down the road before he feels bad and turns around.  This also gives Pablo and his associate time to catch up, doing so outside of the hospital where there is also a fair going on, for some reason.  Once more, it is the work of somebody else that gives the Millers a way out, though David is about to lay down his life for them.  It is Don.  As a DEA agent, he feels duty bound to arrest the Millers.  Instead, David works out a deal to get them Brad.  The film ends with the Millers in witness protection, and David apparently getting back to his old habits.

If you read that synopsis of We’re the Millers and said to yourself, wait, I thought he said there were some good moments.  Where are they?  Well, I did mention when David offers himself to be killed by Pablo instead of the rest, no?  There are more, but they are subtle.  My favorites come early, but they are emblematic of an overarching theme that I would not be surprised to find out is incidental.  It is something that happens to David and Rose separately.  For David, this comes when he runs into an old friend of his.  Following an odd exchange, David notices the stylized stick family on the back of the friend’s family car.  Rose takes this a step further.  Not only does she, too, seem to long for a family of her own, but she slips rather easily into a motherly role, one really inappropriate scene excepting.  David has a fatherly instinct, too, seen mostly in his relationship with Kenny.  It is not perfect by any mean, but it is something.  What this all indicates is something in which God instilled in all of us from the moment of our conception: the desire for community.  To the uninitiated, it may sound like I am talking about a call to live amongst monks or nuns.  This is not the only way to look at such things, but it is still valid.  In addition to all four of the Millers being on their own before they get together, they are doing things that leaves them unfulfilled.  They all feel it in their own way, and it is what motivates them to stick together.  This idea reaches its apotheosis with David.  He has the opportunity to make David’s deadline without the other three, but turns around before he gets too far down the road.  Then again, the end of the movie makes it clear that their togetherness is bound to end.

So, yes, We’re the Millers fails to truly live up to any of the lessons I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  This is why I do not recommend it.  I will admit to laughing in a few spots, but it is the outtakes at the end that are actually the must humorous.  This includes them surprising Jennifer Anniston with the theme music to Friends (1994-2004).  Outside of that, there is way too much adult material in this for me to recommend it.