Unaccompanied Minors

Unaccompanied Minors (called Grounded in the UK and Ireland) is a 2006 Christmas comedy film directed by Paul Feig, starring Lewis Black and Wilmer Valderrama, and co-starring Tyler James Williams, Dyllan Christopher, Brett Kelly, Gia Mantegna, and Quinn Shephard. It is based on a true story by Susan Burton first told on the public radio show This American Life under the title "In the Event of an Emergency, Put Your Sister in an Upright Position".^[1]

Plot

Spencer Davenport and his sister Katherine must fly from California to Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve to spend the holidays with their dad, an environmentalist. Unfortunately, during their layover at the Hoover International Airport in Chicago, a massive blizzard grounds all planes and cancels all flights, and the siblings are sent to the anarchic UM (unaccompanied minors') room, where they meet Christmas-spirited smarty-pants Charlie Goldfinch, surly tomboy Donna Malone, arrogant rich girl Grace Conrad, and mysterious Beef Wellington.

Charlie, Spencer, Beef, Grace and Donna sneak out, and proceed to enjoy themselves around the airport. When they are caught by the airport security guards and returned to the UM room, they find that the other minors, Katherine included, have been sent to a lodge down the road, and that the grouchy head of passenger relations, Oliver Porter — whose trip to Hawaii is among the canceled flights — intends for the kids to spend Christmas Eve in the UM room. Knowing that it will break Katherine's faith in Santa Claus if she does not receive a present by the next morning, Spencer asks the others to help him get a present for his sister in return for a plan to escape.

With Spencer's plan, the minors give Zach Van Bourke, the friendly clerk watching them, the slip, but Mr. Porter grows desperate to get the kids back, and sends all the airport guards to find them. After Donna and Grace get into a fight, Spencer decides that they're going to have to put their differences aside and work together as a team, and Beef leaves to go and get a Christmas tree. Along the way, he reflects on how his step-father, Ernie, hoped to make him stronger by saying men are made, not born. Meanwhile, Spencer and Katherine's father tries to drive to the airport in his biodiesel fueled car, but it eventually breaks down at a gas station. Fortunately, the owner lets him borrow a Hummer.

The minors head to a thinly secured exit in the back of the airport, letting a dog loose to distract the guards. While they hide from Mr. Porter in the baggage claim, Charlie, who is hiding in a suitcase, gets placed on a conveyor transport. Donna goes to save him, putting herself on a wild ride. Spencer and Grace follow them to the unclaimed baggage warehouse, where they find many wonderful presents, including a set of walkie-talkies, and a doll for Katherine.

However, they are seen dancing to Lee Morgan's performance of The Sidewinder on security cameras, and Mr. Porter and the guards chase the minors through the warehouse. Using a canoe, the minors take Zach captive and sled to the lodge while pursued by the guards, and manage to elude Mr. Porter long enough to find Katherine asleep in the lobby, and place the doll in her arms. While running around the lodge, Grace has to remove her contact lenses and switch to glasses, which made her look like a dork in the past (but not to Spencer). With their mission completed, the minors go back to the airport with Mr. Porter quietly. They are placed under surveillance in separate rooms.

Using the walkie-talkies, the minors tamper with the security cameras and escape through air ducts. They find the Christmas decorations Mr. Porter confiscated, and Beef returns with a huge Christmas tree that he traded his prized Aquaman action figure for. With Zach's help, the minors decorate the airport, and take items from the unclaimed baggage warehouse to use as presents for the rest of the stranded passengers. Mr. Porter finds Spencer to admit defeat and reveals that he's unhappy because he never really gets to spend time with his family during Christmas. Spencer inspires some holiday spirit in the man with some friendly words and the gift of a snow globe. On Christmas morning, Mr. Porter dresses up as Santa Claus to hand out presents to the passengers, Spencer and Katherine's father arrives to pick up his children, Beef tells a girl about his trek to find a Christmas tree, Charlie and Donna exchange phone numbers and share a kiss, and Grace accepts Spencer's invitation to spend Christmas with him and his family.

Cast

• Dyllan Christopher as Spencer Davenport
• Lewis Black as Oliver Porter
• Gia Mantegna as Grace Conrad
• Tyler James Williams as Charles "Charlie" Goldfinch
• Quinn Shephard as Donna Malone
• Wilmer Valderrama as Zach Van Bourke
• Brett Kelly as Timothy "Beef" Wellington
• Dominique Saldaña as Katherine Davenport
• Paget Brewster as Valerie Davenport
• Rob Corddry as Samuel "Sam" Davenport
• Wayne Federman as Airport Attendant
• Mario Lopez as Part-Time Substitute minors watcher
• Jessica Walter as Cindi
• Rob Riggle as Head Guard Hoffman
• David Koechner as Ernie
• B. J. Novak as Desk Attendant
• Mindy Kaling as Restaurant Hostess
• Tony Hale as Alan Davies
• Cedric Yarbrough as Melvin "Mel" Goldfinch
• Kristen Wiig as Carole Malone
• Al Roker as Himself
• Teri Garr as Aunt Judy (uncredited)

with a cameo by The Kids in the Hall's Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, and Mark McKinney as Mr. Porter's men

Soundtrack

Tyler James Williams performed a song for the film with the same name as the film, but was not used in the film, but in a television spot to promote the film.

Reception

Unaccompanied Minors was not an initial success at the box office, having earned only $16,655,224 domestically against its $26 million budget, not counting DVD sales. Its worldwide box office gross was $21,994,214. The film received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics, It has a "Rotten" rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the general consensus being: "Unaccompanied Minors, while featuring credible performances by its mostly young cast, is simply a rehash of other, funnier movies" This has a 43 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[2]

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Unaccompanied Minors

• Unaccompanied Minors
• Unaccompanied Minors at the Internet Movie Database
• Unaccompanied Minors at AllMovie
• Unaccompanied Minors at Box Office Mojo
• Unaccompanied Minors at Rotten Tomatoes