We’re the Millers is a comedy film released in 2013 starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston alongside Emma Roberts and Will Poulter. It tells the story of small-time drug dealer David (Sudeikis) who must travel across the U.S.-Mexican border in order to smuggle marijuana back into the U.S. In order to seem less conspicuous, he enlisted his neighbor Rose (Aniston), a stripper, his other neighbor Kenny (Poulter), who is socially awkward and characterized as a virgin, and Casey (Roberts), a runaway, to pose as his family.
Nearly seven years after the film’s release, a lot of the movie still holds up. Many of the jokes are still funny, and the characters are still fairly lovable. However, not everything in the film has held up. In fact, some of it has aged poorly. So, here are five of the things that haven’t aged well and five things that are timeless about the film.
Aged Poorly: Emma Roberts
While Emma Roberts has maintained a fairly successful acting career this past decade, starring in hit television shows such as American Horror Story and Scream Queens, Roberts has also been the center of some controversy. From 2012 to approximately 2019, Roberts dated her American Horror Story co-star, Evan Peters, having met on the set of the film Adult World.
Early on into the relationship, the couple was reported to have a domestic dispute in which both parties hit each other. This incident casts a dark shadow on the film and Roberts, no doubt.
Aged Well: The Found Family Trope
The Found Family trope is not often incorporated into storytelling, whether it is books or film. However, when it is incorporated and done well, it makes the story more entertaining and, in some ways, more relatable. The Found Family trope occurs when unrelated characters in fiction find, and sometimes create, a family through experiences that bring them together.
At the beginning of We’re the Millers, David made it very clear to the other three that they were merely posing as a family for his job and they were not an actual family. By the end of the film, though, the four became closer over multiple close calls they experienced on their journey and they even lived as a family, probably by choice, while in witness protection.
Aged Poorly: Gaslighting Used For Humor
Throughout the film, David gaslights people around him in order to get them to do what he wants them to do. He especially does this to Kenny and, to a lesser extent, Rose. Rose is less inclined to give into David’s gaslighting than Kenny, the latter of whom almost performed a sexual act on a police officer in order to bribe said police officer as a result of David’s gaslighting. Another example is insisting that Kenny was fine when he was having an allergic reaction to a spider bite.
Gaslighting is an emotional abuse tactic that, like domestic abuse, needs to be taken seriously. It should not be used for humor.
Aged Well: The Soundtrack
The soundtrack features modern pop songs such as “Problem” by Natalia Kills and “Hustlin'” by Rick Ross, but it also features classic hits such as “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith, “Waterfalls” by TLC, and “South of the Border” by Frank Sinatra.
Each song featured perfectly encapsulates the events and tone of the scene. The Aerosmith, TLC, and Sinatra songs were already timeless at the time of the film’s release, and the rest of the pop songs featured have since also withstood the test of time for the past seven years and are still catchy and fun to listen to today.
Aged Poorly: Exploiting Homosexuality And Homophobia For Humor
Along the same vein as gaslighting, the idea of homosexuality and homophobia are used for the sake of humor in the same scene mentioned above. A police officer caught David and company leaving Pablo Chacon’s compound and in order not to arrest them for the drugs he knew they had, he sought a bribe. David managed to convince Kenny to perform the sexual act after saying things such as calling Kenny homophobic for not wanting to do it.
The officer’s sexuality is clearly the set up for the punchline of David calling Kenny homophobic. A person’s sexuality is not funny nor is homophobia, which is serious and harmful to those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Aged Well: Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston is an award-winning actress who has maintained a successful film and television career for about thirty years. She is most known for her role as Rachel Green in the sitcom Friends. She has since proven herself a talented comedic and dramatic actress with roles such as Julia Harris in Horrible Bosses and Claire Simmons in Cake.
As mentioned before, Aniston was cast as Rose in We’re the Millers. Rose is headstrong, independent, and smart, traits that Aniston does a great job of portraying. So, not only has Aniston’s success as an actress continued, but her portrayal of Rose is a timeless example of a strong woman.
Aged Poorly: Depiction Of Masculinity
We’re the Millers depicts negative portrayals of masculinity. The most prominent is David, who overcompensates and acts hypermasculine to the point of being a jerk to everyone around him. His boss Brad Gurdlinger (Ed Helms) is also a jerk and overcompensates his masculinity by giving himself inaccurate and oversized body parts in an ice sculpture he made himself.
On the other side of the spectrum is Kenny, who is not particularly masculine and is often berated for it. He also wants to be a hero, something typically deemed as a masculine quality, even though every time he tries, he is clearly out of his comfort zone. While it is good that he is coming out of his shell, he seems to be trying to be the hero out of obligation, rather than true desire.
Aged Well: Hate-To-Love Romance
Hate-to-love romance occurs in a narrative when two characters initially hate or cannot stand each other but ultimately move past these negative feelings and fall in love with each other. This trope is incredibly popular among fans of romance because it adds conflict to the story in more interesting ways than infidelity and love triangles would.
David and Rose, in spite of being physically attracted to each other, initially cannot stand each other and constantly argue. However, as time progresses, they bond and eventually fall in love, as shown through their first kiss at the climax of the film, and later through playful banter during the film’s resolution. Their romance is classic hate-to-love and is thoroughly entertaining to watch.
Aged Poorly: The Use Of Drug Cartels
In Hollywood, it is common to use drugs and drug cartels when portraying Mexican and Latinx characters and stories, and We’re the Millers is no different. However, there is so much more to these cultures than the issue of drugs and drug cartels that are often neglected in Hollywood’s narratives.
Drugs, particularly marijuana, are an important part of the plot of We’re the Millers, but the writers and the director could have still found different means of conflict or provided a more positive portrayal of Mexican and Latinx people instead of adding to the negative stereotypes surrounding these cultures.
Aged Well: Portrayal Of Strippers
The media often portrays strippers, particularly women strippers, as drug users, people who do not have their life together, and slutty, among other negative stereotypes. What the media seems to fail to realize is that strippers are people with jobs, just as a professional ballerina or a lawyer is. It just so happens that it is more acceptable to openly sexualize strippers.
The strippers are still sexualized in the film and Rose still struggles to pay the bills, however, Rose is still a strong woman who can fend for herself in any situation thrown at her, which is a more positive portrayal than is common for Hollywood.
