Good morning, House of Madness occupants:
If you took a gigantic mishmash of delicious fruit, cut them all up, and served them covered in whipped cream, you'd most certainly be complimented for your inventiveness by the recipients of your masterful feast. When the party is feeling dull, and you pull out your old 90's grunge mix from high school, the room's vibes immediately alter into a nostalgic vault of total awesomeness, as everyone can't help but rock out to the sounds of their youth. Nothing wrong with slapping a bunch of different ideas together in a film as long as they all sync and feed off of each other's strengths, but if you simply combine a bunch of half-ideas and throw them at the wall hoping they'll stick, the end result is a confused mess that nobody really feels like cleaning up. Such is the case with "Spoonful of Sugar", a film so indecisive on what exactly it wants to be, it tries to be everything all at once, without first individually establishing itself as anything concrete.
Johnny (Danilo Crovetti) is a very sick little boy, suffering from several ailments ranging from gluten allergies to just about everything you can think of. His mother Rebecca (Kat Foster) is a writer, and often finds herself away from home leaving Johnny alone with his father Jacob (Myko Olivier), a self-proclaimed carpenter that seems at his best while drinking beer. Clearly these two need a caregiver for Johnny, as Jacob needs a minimum of 6 hours daily to cut wood in the shed, or water the lawn shirtless. Enter Millicent (Morgan Saylor), a troubled youth in her own regard who settles her inner demons down with daily doses of LSD. Millicent is hired as Johnny's new caregiver, and the two seem to hit it off immediately, bonding over drawings, paintings, and dead rabbits. Yep, when little Johnny's parents aren't looking, he has himself a little rabbit killing and burying hobby just waiting to be nourished by someone he loves. This is beginning to play out like the 'feel good story' of the year!
The closer Millicent gets to Johnny (and Jacob, *wink wink*), the more possessive and opposing Rebecca becomes, fueling a 30,000 foot tall fire you saw coming faster than a boredom chaser in Saskatchewan. "Spoonful of Sugar" simply tries to be too many things at once; instead of settling on one thing and doing it well, the film oddly tries to do four or five different things, and does them all below average at best. Unfortunately, you're going to need more than a spoonful of sugar in order to get this film to go down, and even then, I'm pretty sure your mind is going to try and expel what the cinema doctor didn't order.
Madness Meter: 4.4/10
NB
