Ideal Home

"When Ideal Home ends, it’s with a rousing series of family snapshots, all featuring same-sex parents and their offspring. Adults beam, children grin and the sounds of 10cc’s The Things We Do For Love pairs perfectly with each real-life photo. Writer/director Andrew Fleming could’ve opened the movie with the same slideshow and it would’ve proven just as moving, in a Gayby Baby-style ode to parental bonds, just in a microcosm. But it’s perhaps a bigger compliment to note that this heartfelt comedy-drama would’ve worked without the overt tribute, with its sweet and sincere story striking a chord on its own."

"In Ideal Home Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd are Erasmus and Paul, a celebrity chef and his long suffering romantic partner who live a lavish life of bickering together in Santa Fe. When Erasmus’s 10-year-old grandson arrives out of the blue, abandoned by his father, their fraught domestic bliss is turned upside down and the pair are forced to take responsibility for the child and grow to become something resembling a family unit. Do I even need to add that zany antics ensue?"

"Flaws and all, this is a film with a feeling for human complexities, a degree of visual intelligence and its heart in the right place. Considering the current dismal state of big-screen American comedy, that feels like a gift."

"Beneath the smartly observed relationship dramas and the cracks at cooking shows though, Fleming's Home is slightly less than ideal."

"Despite its been-there-done-that story, what saves Ideal Home from mediocrity is the irrepressible charm of Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan."

"A couple of wild left field gags bring a nice tart counter-taste to the film’s tendency towards syrupiness."