For people who like this sort of thing, The Sitter is just the sort of thing they like.
The Sitter is a contemporary comedy starring Jonah Hill as Noah, a sweet-natured slacker who lives at home with mom. He doesn't have a job. He doesn't go to school, although he's obviously bright. His role in life is to be awkward and embarrassing, apparently, and his motivation seems to be rejection. Ha, ha!
In The Sitter, Noah agrees to take care of some neighborhood kids so that his single mom can go to a charity function. Noah's interest in children is just about zero, but he's good to his mom, so he reluctantly agrees to baby-sit. He's left in charge of an anxiety-ridden adolescent boy named Slater (Max Records), Slater's spoiled little sister (Landry Bender) and their recently adopted brother from El Salvador -- a small criminal with a penchant for explosives named Rodrigo (Kevin Hernandez).
Noah is crazy about a selfish coke-head named Marisa (Ari Graynor), so when she phones him and offers sex and an invitation to a party, he can't say no.
And could he just buy a little cocaine on the way? Of course he could.
He'll just take the kids along for the ride, Noah reasons, even though he's been forbidden to drive their father's car. Noah drives into Manhattan, where he must face many obstacles, from poopy pants and angry black saleswomen to gem theft, car theft, car chases, car crashes, drug-crazed villains, gangs of bad-tempered urban youth and derivative comedic writing.
Along the way, Noah gets out of trouble time and time again just by showing his true, kind nature. He runs into a pretty former classmate (Kylie Bunbury) who says she has admired him from afar, so he even gets the girl.
Oh, sure -- it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. Noah has to cope with rejection from his father and he has to help his young charge Slater with orientation issues. He has to help Slater's sister with her fears about her parents' marriage and he has to help Rodrigo with his fear of rejection. That means The Sitter is a combination of drama and humour.
Quick study, aren't you?
Jonah Hill somehow manages to get through this material intact, and his scenes with Sam Rockwell, here playing a gleeful, new age drug dealer who discusses the merits of niche packaging, are terrific. When Rockwell is on the screen, the film becomes energetic and wildly funny; when he's not on the screen, The Sitter is a sitcom episode stretched to feature length.
There is no doubt an audience for this material among adolescent boys, but for almost everyone else, this is 82 deja vu minutes of your life you're not getting back.
