Movie Review: The Sitter (2011) seen in theatres as well as on DVD and multiple streaming services

Comedy; not recommended for young children; sexual content, mature themes, drug use throughout

The movie follows a man named Noah, (played by Jonah Hill,) a man in his mid 20’s who still lives with his mother who is tasked with babysitting the children of his mother’s friends to allow her plans to go out with them to go as planned after the regular babysitter cancels at the last minute.

Noah is a man in his mid 20’s who has recently dropped out of college. Despite his age, he acts like a stereotypical teenager; sitting on the couch, eating what he wants and being lazy while ignoring most of his mother’s requests to do chores around the house. He is seen as overweight and is unwilling to do anything. As his mother is preparing to go out with her friends for the evening, the phone rings, (which Noah intentionally ignores despite being right next to it and forcing his mother to answer it.) When she is informed that her friends cannot go out with her due to the babysitter cancelling, Noah is strong armed into doing it when his mother reminds him that he can use the extra money as well as the fact that he begins to notice her disappointment in not being able to go out. Though he initially complains about his lack of skills in regards to handling children, he eventually gives in. As he arrives at the house, he is introduced to the couple’s three children, (one of whom is adopted from El Salvador.) He notices that each of the three children have their own flaws. He is first introduced to Slater, (played by Max Records,) who admits to having severe anxiety and thus does not like change and cannot handle too much responsibility. He is taken upstairs and introduced to Blythe, (played by Landry Bender,) who is obsessed with being a celebrity and believes she knows all sorts of gossip and loves to wear makeup and perfume, which she sprays in Noah’s mouth upon being left alone with him for a second. He is taken to the basement where he meets Rodrigo. He is always seen wearing cowboy pyjamas and loves explosives and has a passion for setting off fire crackers. As he is known to escape, Noah is given a tracking device to look for him.

The father is not fond of Noah as he is aware of Noah having recently been arrested for driving under the influence. With that in mind, he forbids Noah from using the family’s minivan as he does not trust him. When the mother tells Noah they should be back no later than 1 a.m. Noah says that anytime earlier is better for him. The parents then depart.

As soon as the parents leave, Noah attempts to watch tv only to be disturbed by the children being loud as well as Rodrigo breaking the potted plants. Blythe suggests that they go to a club as she is bored with being at home, which Noah declines. When Blythe complains that her real babysitter plays with her and reads to her, Noah offers a comedic response by saying he’s not a real babysitter.

After receiving a call from his girlfriend, (whom he initially thought was ill,) he agrees to take the children on a road trip, disregarding the warning of the children’s father in the process, when she offers him sexual favours in exchange for buying her drugs from a dealer she knows and bringing it to the party she is currently attending. When Blythe has an accident midway through the ride, Noah stops at a nearby store to buy her a new pair of pants. He runs into a woman, (whose name I cannot remember,) who has beef with him for tampering with her dead grandmother’s ashes when they were in college. To get back at him, she informs the store manager of possible pedophile like behaviour going on in the children’s department of the store, which Noah is quick to explain his side of the story. Despite Blythe being present and knowing what is going on, she defends the story brought forth by the woman forcing them both to flee the store. When Noah asks Blythe why she didn’t defend him, she said it was because she did not like the colour of the shorts he was making her wear.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere surrounding them has caused Slater’s anxiety to worsen which is made worse by Rodrigo taunting him for his problems, as well as running away himself. Noah finds him in the bathroom of a restaurant where he claims to have dropped a bomb which Noah dismisses as a joke at first. However, at they leave the bathroom, the bomb actually goes off resulting in the fire alarm going off.

At this point, Noah realizes he cannot handle the children and calls them each out on their respective problems. Slater suggests that Noah should bring them back to their parents if he couldn’t handle them. He initially opts to go this route. However, upon arriving, he finds his mother at the same party and decides to continue babysitting as he does not want to disappoint her and having made the promise that he would go through with the job.

The children arrive at the place where Noah is supposed to buy the drugs. Rodrigo enters the building to use the bathroom where he finds a dinosaur egg concealing cocaine within it. After leaving the building, the dealer calls Noah and says that if the egg is is not returned along with $10,000 in cash, he will kill him. At this point, Rodrigo pulls out the egg and reveals he found it in the washroom. As a tug of war ensues between him and Noah over the egg, it opens and releases the cocaine in Noah’s face.

The rest of the movie is pretty much Noah just trying and failing to generate the money needed for the the egg. Through a series of events, Noah is unable to obtain the money needed but instead enlists a group of thugs to have the dealer and his henchmen killed. The movie ends with Noah and the children making it back home before their parents initially arrive, (although the parents were at least ten mins late,) and the children are seen watching a news story with Noah as their parents enter the house recounting the events that they had just been on. Noah is informed by the children’s mother not to wait up for his mother as she has met a man and won’t be home until late.

The movie ends with Noah being paid his money to babysit and leaving the house as the children wave goodbye through their bedroom window.

I was a really big fan of this movie. I like Jonah Hill’s acting and I feel as though he has similar problems with his father as I do with mine. Though this is not included in the initial review, Noah attempts to enlist his father’s help in obtaining the money as his father is wealthy. When his father refuses to help him, he opts to steal his car en route to getting back their stolen minivan, (another plot that was left not discussed in the initial review.)

A sub plot of this movie is Slater secretly finding it hard to cope when his friend Clayton says he cannot come over to hang out with him. Though Slater initially believes that Clayton is still reeling from the death of his pet spider, he is shocked to find Clayton at a bar mitzvah being held for one of his classmates, which Noah and the children find themselves attending as a means of stealing the child’s gifted money as a means to pay for the egg. After losing his medication when Rodrigo threw it out the car window, Noah helps Slater realize he is homosexual and that his constant texting towards him as well as the way he acts when he finds Clayton with someone else is because of bottled up feelings he has for him which Clayton doesn’t have towards Slater. Though Slater tries to deny this, he eventually comes clean where Noah assures him that it may seem like a big deal now but eventually no one will care. He also tells Noah that his father thinks he is a total failure and thus, he can relate to his situation.

I really enjoyed this movie. I would definitely recommend it

Movie rating: 10 out of 10