Nothing to See Here

Lillian Breaker doesn't have a lot going on. She's working two cashier jobs and smoking weed in the attic of her mother's house. So it's not like she's going to say no when an old friend reaches out for her help. Especially considering how ridiculously wealthy said friend is. What's even better is the favour amounts to taking care of 10 year old twins who just happen to spontaneously combust.

There are tropes aplenty that stretch the bounds of reasonable believability. Of course outsider Lillian would befriend upper crust Madison. That a shared love of basketball is enough to bridge a massive class divide and maintain a long distance friendship over the years. That Lillian taking the fall for Madison and getting expelled from school, dashing any hope of reaching escape velocity from her fabulously crappy life, isn't enough to dent this bond. Meanwhile, Madison, still incredibly rich, has married a senator with aspirations to the presidency. I mean this what your teen movie nemesis origin story looks like, this is how you play up the villain not how you set up Lillian to start babysitting Madison's husband's little fire children.

But then I'm warmed by Lillian with the kids. I mean none of us are truly up to the task of raising children and are bound to fail miserably in countless ways everyday. Children are incredibly unstable and volatile things prone to violent outbursts and flaming tirades. But at the same time “Maybe raising children was just giving them the things you loved most in the world and hoping that they loved them, too.” That it takes nothing to be a parent but everything to try and be a good one.

But then this is all blunted by the fact that raising children is perhaps easier when it comes with a perfect little cottage to call one's own, filled with books, toys and access to any number of servants, a pool, basketball court and anything else money can buy. I get it, money a good parent does not make, but boy does a generous sprinkling of it make everything better.