Rob Reiner’s Flipped contains a number of elements that would be problematically sentimental individually, but prove disastrous when combined. Where most filmmakers would limit themselves to wall-to-wall narration by telegenic children or a quaint period setting or a kindly, soft-spoken grandfather who speaks exclusively in hard-won life lessons or a subplot involving a mentally challenged uncle with a similar propensity for imparting life lessons or soft-focus, perpetually glowing cinematography that’s equally indebted to Thomas Kinkade and Norman Rockwell or adorable animals or elaborate metaphors about trees or a ubiquitous soundtrack of heart-tugging oldies, Reiner unites all these maudlin elements into one hilariously overwrought romantic comedy. He then slathers on multiple coats of sentimentality, just in case a solitary moment of restraint or understatement somehow slipped through.
