In Disney's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Australian kid actor Ed Oxenbould is perfectly cast as an 11-year-old underdog who experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life-a seemingly ordinary day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another.
But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he's not alone when his mum, dad, brother and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn't had one.
It's one of those wonderful ensemble films that showcases the comedic talents of Steve Carell as Alexander's stay-at-home dad who hopes to rejoin the ranks of the employed; Jennifer Garner plays the super mum who shoulders the breadwinning duties for the family; Dylan Minnette is the rogue big brother who is a 'total winner' until his first zit ruins his prom date; Kerris Dorsey is the bratty sister who's an aspiring actress looking forward to her debut as Peter Pan in the school play; and twins Zoey and Elise Vargas crawled up to the plate to portray the youngest Cooper-baby Trevor, who suffers a bad day when his beloved bumblebee dummy is unwittingly destroyed and he finds little solace in a green marker, despite valiant efforts.
"It's a fun family film that's in the vein of the John Hughes movies," says director Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Cedar Rapids, Youth in Revolt).
"Alexander thinks his family's too busy to notice how terrible his day has been, and his wish for them to have an equally bad day so that they can understand what it's like actually comes true."
The film was inspired by the 1972 children's classic by Judith Viorst, with more than 2 million copies in print it became an ALA Notable Children's Book and won a George G Stone Center Recognition of Merit, a Georgia Children's Book Award and distinction as a Reading Rainbow book.
"The book has a wonderful following," says Arteta, who directed the big-screen adaptation.
"So many people grew up with it in the '70s, remember it fondly, and now, as parents, are reading it to their kids. It resonates with people because it makes it okay to admit that sometimes things aren't going to go your way."
In adapting the beloved book to the big screen, the filmmakers knew Alexander's day would have to get much worse than the original 32-page picture book.
"How do you take a short picture book and make it into a full feature film?" asks producer Lisa Henson.
"The idea for the film adaptation was to use the story in the book as the first act of the movie. The second two acts of the film had to be a completely original storyline set during a second day that is even worse than Alexander's first terrible, horrible, very bad day."
Enter Rob Lieber, a graduate of NYU's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts film programme, who had adapted children's and young adult books like Septimus Heap and Jeremy Cabbage into feature scripts.
"What everybody loves about the book is that it is about a kid who seems to have a dark cloud over him," says the screenwriter. "He feels like he can do no right and everything's going wrong. I think most of us have felt the same way some days, so I really identified with Alexander. He was having a bad day and his family couldn't understand what he was going through. That was the spark for the rest of the film's story."
Filmmakers, while keeping the spirit of the book, opened up the bad-day potential to the rest of the family.
"We wanted this to be a family movie that parents would enjoy as much as their kids," says producer Dan Levine. "So each of the other family members-the brother, sister, parents, even the baby-endure their own special disasters for the day."
"I have four kids myself and we've had lots of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days," adds producer Shawn Levy. "We wanted to make a movie that's ultimately funny and sweet in the way that a family can unite around a catastrophic 24 hours."
"There's a sense of safety when it comes to family," says Arteta, "though it's easy to lose track of that sometimes when everyone is wrapped up in their own lives."
Arteta treats the film's disasters with his signature independent moviemaking style-infusing a blend of irreverent humour and enough heart to keep viewers invested in the characters' off-road adventures. "There's something very madcap, hectic and delicious about day two in the movie when everybody is having a terrible day at the same time," he says. "Every family can relate to that feeling of chaos."
Arteta says that like Alexander, he's decided bad days are pretty much unavoidable. "I have a lot of bad days when everything seems to go wrong-the fridge door swings too fast and knocks over a bunch of glass bottles making me late for every appointment thereafter. I seem to have a lot of those days. I think I'm the right director for this film."
Share Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with friends and family. You will realise that bad days can easily turn frowns upside down and unite families.
Biz readers can win a fun Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day hamper that contains a T-shirt, spill-proof cup, bookmark, notebook, door hanger and stress ball. All you have to do is tell us about your worst day ever and send your answer and contact details with Alexander in the subject line to az.oc.oidutsgnitirw@leinad before 15 November, 2014.
Read more about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad and other new films opening this week.
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