The Best and the Brightest

When I saw the cover for this movie I was a bit excited as I saw Neil Patrick Harris was on the cast. So it was with some anticipation that I sat down to watch this movie.

And now that I have seen it, I sit with an overwhelming sensation that just screams "was this movie really necessary?" The storyline told in "The Best and the Brightest" is fairly easy, almost too simple actually. A family moves to New York and have to find a kindergarten for their daughter. Then in order to get into this fancy kindergarten, events start to unfold and roll downhill, escalating into something bigger and bigger. The deeper the parents go in, the harder it gets to come clean.

The cast list, does hold some rather good names, and some performances were actually alright. However, I was really, really disappointed with Neil Patrick Harris's (playing Jeff) performance in the movie, it was so tame compared to how he was in previous movies and TV series. Peter Serafinowicz (playing Clark) and Jenna Stern (playing Katharine Heilmann) were the ones carrying the weight of the movie and making it bearable to sit through. And the role and performance of Christopher McDonald (playing The Player) was a really good injection of comedy for the movie. He is just superb.

Now, as for a comedy, there were surprisingly few places throughout the movie that had me laughing. Sure there were lots of scenes that could have been made to force laughter, but failed to do so. So I wouldn't go out and watch this with the intention to be entertained for the sake of laughs.

"The Best and the Brightest" is, sadly, one of those movies that comes by, dies off silently in the night, and is quietly forgotten.