Family Movie Night: "Who Is Simon Miller?"

This Saturday, August 6th, NBC is hosting Family Movie Night! Grab your kids, grab some popcorn, turn out the lights and tune in at 8 pm EST (7 pm CT) for "Who is Simon Miller?"
So what's this all about? P &G and Wal-Mart, as you may remember, have made a commitment to partner up and create more movies family-friendly movies on television. The idea is to get the whole gang together and share some quality time, watching a thought-provoking but appropriate-for-all-ages movie with your kids.

This month's movie focuses on Simon Miller, a geologist who suddenly vanishes one night, leaving his family (naturally) desperate to to find him. Simon's wife, Meredith, and his children, Sarah and Kevin, set out on a quest to discover the mystery behind his disappearance. But though his wife and children start out trying to piece together where Simon went, uncovering a cache of passports under a host of aliases leaves them instead wondering who he was. An international adventure to solve the puzzle spurs his family on as they race to find the missing husband and father and ask him, once and for all, "Who is Simon Miller?"

Here's what you need to know to share Family Movie Night with your own kids this weekend:

• Who Is Simon Miller? premieres this Saturday on NBC (8pm ET/7pm CT).
• Mom Central is also hosting a #FamilyMovie Twitter Party tomorrow, with giveaways!
• You can check out the Family Movie Night website here. 
• You can also "like" Family Movie Night here. 

I had a chance to preview "Who Is Simon Miller" on Monday, August 1st. While I watched the movie, I jotted down my own impressions, and used them to come up with some questions for my own kids about the film, the way the family in the movie was portrayed, and how realistic that portrayal really is.


I thought I'd share them with you.

Questions for Who Is Simon Miller?

1. What are your first impressions of the son and daughter in the film? How about the Mom? 

1. How do the kids in the movie help in the search?  At the beginning of the movie, I was frustrated myself, because I felt the daughter was just standing around looking confused and pretty, or manipulating Mom into letting her do what she wanted. The son seemed to have a variety of skills. Thankfully, the movie didn't perpetuate the "girls are pretty, boys do things" stereotype. 
2. How realistic are the kids' skills?  My sons are gifted gamers, but know nothing of hacking, and I'm great with puzzles but never learned to pick locks. And all of us have taken languages in high school and/or college. So, we had trouble accepting the daughter's proficiency with languages. I learned the hard way that 'knowing some French words' and "actually conversing with French people" are two different things. Oh, and my kids would be texting the whole time and taking a lot more pics!
3. How would you handle yourself if you were in the kids' place? I liked the kids' self-sufficiency in this movie. I know my kids would not fall to pieces emotionally, but even with all the travelling we've done, I think they'd feel anxious trying to get around town on their own. I also think the movie handled the emotional reactions well. 
4. (Okay, now the scary question) How do you think Mom/Dad would handle themselves in this kind of situation? Yeah, you'll have to fend this one for yourself!

Enjoy "Who is Simon Miller?" on Saturday night. And feel free to come back and comment to let me know what you and your family thought of the movie!


I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.