Movie Review: Mom's Night Out

A few weeks ago, a my pal Linda over at Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps, invited me to the media preview of Mom’s Night Out the movie. 

I went knowing it was a comedy; but not realizing that the film is absolutely Jesusy and real—funny, delightful, truthful and the best comedy I’ve seen in a long time. 

The movie chronicles a failed Mom’s Night Out. Main character Allyson is at the end of her rope, following a very trying Mother’s Day weekend. She arms herself with a Groupon, invites her best pal and the minister’s wife for a girl’s night out. 

Of course, there are a few, tiny missteps here and there (which have you laughing until you cry and then crying because it all works out and is just so adorably beautiful.).

The movie has an all-star cast: Sarah Drew, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, David Hunt, Andrea Logan White, Robert Amaya, Abbie Cobb, Harry Shum Jr. Kevin Downes, Alex Kundrick and Trace Adkins.  Heaton nails it as the delightful and super normal Pastor’s wife, which the right side of wisdom.  And Adkins has a voice made for telling Biblical truths (and selling oatmeal and doing that whole country music thing).

Mom’s Night Out does this marvelous job of portraying Christian mothers as who we are—beautiful disasters who are just trying to survive and at the same time raise children who love God. The characters in the movie are as real as they get—with imperfections and insecurity and sin.  There is nothing artificial about the main characters—they love God and their families; but at the same time, they just want to run away screaming.

You will laugh and you will go home totally recharged and ready to tackle motherhood head on, because, you are not alone.  You've always got God on your side to remind you to laugh at the chaos and you've got your girlfriends to laugh right along with you. 

Not convinced? Here are my ten reasons why you must go see Mom’s Night Out this weekend with your best girl friends:

1. Your beautiful, artistic children painted your walls with nail polish (or poop or peanut butter or sharpies) at some point this week. 
2. You may or may not have spent a tiny part of church on Sunday in a very non-zen place kicking your husband to keep him awake during the sermon, while one of your beautiful, artistic children pulled a stranger’s hair and another lifted up their dress and screamed that they hated underwear. 
3. You have these GORGEOUS going out shoes that you’ve never worn. And since the movie theater will be dark, no one will see you stumbling and wobbling in your heels. 
4. If you don’t laugh at the nail polish and the hair pulling and the strange, horrific smell emanating from the refrigerator, you will go mad. 
5. You compulsively purchase Groupons/Living Social Deals/etc for fancy restaurants.  
6. Apparently, a preschooler requests his or her mom’s attention 210 times a day; but this is a low ball estimate. In my house it is approximately 210 MILLION times a day. 
7. You’ve text messaged during Bible Study about things not directly related to Jesus/The Holy Ghost/God/The Bible
8. Your children deserve a night with Dad—and well, you don’t care what happens as long as everyone is alive. 
9. You want to see Christian motherhood portrayed in areal-way, complete with the humor.
10. And of course, because of Proverbs 17:22:

“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

So, go, grab your mom, your best friend and see Moms Night Out the movie, opening nationwide, May 9.