Richard Caldwell (Judge Reinhold) and Kathy Caldwell (Romy Windsor) are the parents. Their daughter Kathy (Scarlett Johansson) hates her little brother George and his pranks. Matilda (Eva Mendes) is their nanny. Kathy is frustrated that George remains unpunished for his bad behavior. While the parents are away in France, George gets into Matilda's secret magic crystals and gets turned into a pig. They with George's friend Freud have to go to Mexico to seek help from Matilda's Grandma Berta.
This is a family film with a teenage ScarJo. She's perfectly fine in this. I like the first half like one of those silly body snatching 70's Disney movies. It's fine until they decide to take the little kid. It makes no sense even if his parents don't care about it. They don't even seek permission from the parents. A better premise would be him as a car stowaway. Then they split up for no reason and put the kid in charge of the pig. Something is wrong with these people. Also splitting them up detracts the chemistry between the characters. The second half is pretty annoying. Kathy turns into an annoying tween girl. Matilda turns into an annoying idiot. Freud is still an annoying little boy. They should have done a MacGuffin hunt instead. So the movie turns into a kiddie chase and it gets really boring after escaping the town.
This is a family film with a teenage ScarJo. She's perfectly fine in this. I like the first half like one of those silly body snatching 70's Disney movies. It's fine until they decide to take the little kid. It makes no sense even if his parents don't care about it. They don't even seek permission from the parents. A better premise would be him as a car stowaway. Then they split up for no reason and put the kid in charge of the pig. Something is wrong with these people. Also splitting them up detracts the chemistry between the characters. The second half is pretty annoying. Kathy turns into an annoying tween girl. Matilda turns into an annoying idiot. Freud is still an annoying little boy. They should have done a MacGuffin hunt instead. So the movie turns into a kiddie chase and it gets really boring after escaping the town.