This is a very sweet movie. You have Dan, our cop with a heart of gold, who takes on two foster kids because he feels bad about putting their dad in jail. No cop, of course, should feel personally responsible because he apprehended a guy whose bad actions require him to go to jail. But that's how good a guy Dan is. You have Libby, our beautiful, brainy video game designer who takes a job as the kids' nanny out of desperation. The kids are sullen and uncooperative at first, as you would expect foster kids to be, but they are no match for Libby's sweetness, empathy and understanding, or Dan's firm but caring approach to parenting. In no time at all, they form a quasi family. The kids become much nicer, the boy actually makes a friend and learns baseball from Dan and gets on the little league team, and Dan and Libby start having feelings for each other and begin dating. Of course, Libby is only there until she can find a real tech job, so the wonderful family situation can't last forever. Or can it? Well, we all know the answer. The kids' ne'er-do-well dad will conveniently decide to terminate his parental rights, Dan will adopt the kids and Libby will quit her tech job and come back to Dan and the kids and marry him. Satisfying happy ending delivered.
Okay, you have to suspend a lot of disbelief while watching this movie. What guy would hire a girl who was never a nanny to be his nanny? That's a giant leap of faith. Libby steps way too easily into the role of surrogate mom for those kids The kids, though initially somewhat difficult, are whipped into shape way too easily by Dan and Libby. Things work out way too smoothly in the end. But it's such a nice, feel-good movie that you readily and willingly accept all this.
The performances from Jessy Schram and Aaron Hill as our unlikely foster parents are great. She is warm and genuine from the start, and she lights up the screen in every scene she's in. He's handsome, yet likable and relatable. You really want those two to get together and you really want it to work out for them and the kids to be a family. The screenplay may be cliched and simplistic, but the dialog is good and, for the most part, feels real and natural.
I do wish that they had provided a compelling reason why Libby seems to be unable to totally commit to a relationship with Dan and the kids. It's implied that her growing up years as a military brat or her parents' rocky marriage and divorce may have caused this, but they need to make this more explicit. I forget if there was also a bad boyfriend in her past, but something like that would be more of a reason for her to eschew long-term emotional contacts.
So, don't overanalyze this movie too much or try to pick it apart for being too unrealistic. Just let it suck you in and enjoy it, and I promise you that you will.
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