MOVIE NIGHT WITH THE ERWIN BROTHERS: MOM’S NIGHT OUT
“Hardworking mom Allyson has a crazy night out with her friends, while their husbands watch their children.”
~ IMDB description of “Mom’s Night Out”
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”…but what happens when the baby in the cradle goes missing? 😊
That’s what Allyson and her fellow moms discover when they try to take one night off from their hectic lives only to have everything that can go wrong go absolutely wrong—and then some! But, before I can continue this post, I feel like I need to clarify something…
The above-mentioned missing baby is perfectly safe throughout the course of the entire movie and is returned to its home before the credits roll with nary a scratch.
There. Now that all the Mom’s reading this post are set at ease, we can move on… 😊
The Erwin Brother’s second theatrical release “Mom’s Night Out” may not be what most would call an epic (although it does star the brilliant Sean Astin who played heroic Master Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings”, so there’s that 😉). It may not have smashed Box Office Records or won Academy Awards. Yet, it accomplished something many an Epic, Box Office Smash, or Academy Award Winner never even dreamt of doing.
It celebrated the beauty of motherhood.
Not neat, clean, “perfect” motherhood where nothing ever gets broken, paint never gets spilled, hair is never pulled, and children always obey with a smile. Messy motherhood, challenging motherhood, and, ultimately, motherhood more rewarding than all the Box Office wins in the world…all while delivering what has proved to be a rare bird, indeed: a successful Christian Comedy. The storyline is fast-paced and upbeat, the situations increasingly crazy, and the cast of characters colorful to say the least, yet at its heart lies a very tender message of letting go of the pressure we as women so often feel to “perfectly perform” and just trust that “He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (that verse isn’t actually in the movie, but I think it fits well).
Before I talk about the message, though, I want to say how much fun this movie is! I still laugh (and cry) every time I watch it! Comedy that is genuinely funny and still surprisingly heartfelt is one of the hardest things to tackle as a writer (for me, anyway), but Jon and Andrew Erwin did a fantastic job with both in this film. The acting is honest and believable and the scenes are snappy, with a few being outright, “roll in the floor” hilarious (make sure you’re not trying to eat during the car chase scene 😉). While a few of the scenarios may be a little edgier than certain conservative families will feel comfortable subjecting their children (especially young children) to, the content is completely free of the offensive language, dirty jokes, and filthy behavior so commonplace in “modern” comedies. That in itself was enough for me to enjoy it immensely.
But the message is why I love it.
In the following scene (which is a bit of a spoiler, so be aware!), Allyson is reminded from an unlikely source what motherhood is really about and where her worth truly comes from. It was the clip I watched that made me want to see the movie in theaters and, to this day, still makes me cry…
“It’s a beautiful thing to watch one of God’s creations just doing what He made it to do. Just being an eagle…Let me tell you something, girl: I doubt the Good Lord made a mistake givin’ your kiddos the Mamma He did. So you just be you. He’ll take care of the rest.”
I think about those lines so often. It’s so easy to take on ourselves the pressure of performing, of trying, of striving to achieve some level of elusive perfection only to “beat ourselves up” because we constantly feel like we are falling short. But we were never meant to reach perfection on our own. We can’t reach it on our own. The Bible tells us in Colossians 1 that “Christ in us” is “the hope of glory”—not ourselves, but Christ! And the way we access Him is through surrender not striving. As we yield ourselves to Him, learning to “abide” in His love and lean on His Holy Spirit to do the work, then we truly find rest. Not self-made perfection.
True rest.
And He gives us this rest not in spite of but right in the middle of this messy, crazy world: this wild and wacky thing we call “life”…
Even on a mom’s night out. 😊
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
~ Jesus Christ (Matthew 11:28-30)
EMBRACE ADVENTURE,
CHRISTIS JOY
