Okay, so let’s start with the good part: the opening scene is perfect. Dad’s head is right above baby Liam’s head; they’re both perfectly centered, and they’re both looking directly at Grandma and Grandpa. It’s a clear and ideal way for us to meet these characters.
After that, though, it all got pretty confusing.
If I had to pinpoint where things went off the rails, it would be when Liam took the phone. At first, it seemed like Dad was very determined to make Liam give the phone back to him, so I figured we were in for a nice old-fashioned chase scene followed by a return to more logical camera shots. But then, after a few seconds, Dad just, like, gave up. And it didn’t seem like he had given up only on getting the phone back. It seemed like he had completely given up on getting Liam to ever listen to anything he had to say about anything. It felt existentially sad and made for a very jarring juxtaposition from the beginning of the call, when they were just talking to Grandma and Grandpa about Liam’s swimming lesson.