The One Direction movie through the eyes of a parent

Being a parent is never easy… there’s the midnight nappy changes, the constant and crafty nagging, or even the trauma of teaching your kids to drive (something I can expect next year.)

But there’s one thing that no parent could ever be prepared for … a viewing of ‘One Direction: This Is US’.

On behalf of Growing Faith, I took my two teenage girls to the media preview to watch this movie about the world’s latest boy-band craze. According to at least two references in the movie, these UK-reality-show runner-ups are bigger than The Beatles … a somewhat confident claim.

The rise and rise of One Direction

The film documents their journey from childhood to global fame, and in the midst of the well-filmed 3D concert footage, there's a barrage of screaming, young girls in the advanced stages of reborn Beatles Mania (did I really just compare them to The Beatles, again?)

The music, the movie and the whole 1D machine is the product of Simon Cowell, the entrepreneur and television personality known for American Idol, X-Factor and Pretty Much Everywhere’s Got Talent.

So, it’s fair to say that if you and your children love watching these reality-TV, rags-to-riches, nobody-to-somebody programs, then you’ll feel very much at home watching the story of these new kids on the block.

In fact, the whole movie feels just like an extended version of an Australian Idol episode, complete with the gushing, emotional interviews with the mums and the dads who have seen their kids grow from boys to men.

The price of fame

As a person who relates more to the plight of the parents than their backstreet boys, it was difficult not to feel the sense of sadness as they resorted to literally buying life-size cardboard cut-outs of their children in order to be with them. One parent shared through tears how his son in the band had only been home for five nights in the last two-and-a-half years since the first audition on the X-Factor.

This is the raw end of the fame factory, as parents unexpectedly see their young boys head off to the big wild world, where kids quickly learn more about life than even the mothers who nursed them.

Yet, when one of the 1D boys buys a house for his mother and sister, we see a fringe benefit of this rise to fame and fortune … and yet, the fact that the tearful exchange was made over a mobile phone call from a hotel room on tour showed the stark impact of the jet-setting life of a global star.

As long as you don’t tease me, I’ll confess that I actually found the movie quite enjoyable. It’s no Shawshank Redemption, but it’s a fun, feel-good movie that is appropriate for almost all ages (with only two or three mild PG swear words that you’d expect to see in a TV sitcom).

Yet, for parents, there is an important lesson to be learnt: don’t be quick to wish fame and fortune on your children. We would certainly take great pride in watching our grown-up kids perform before massive crowds at the famous Madison Square Gardens, but this stardom is not without its cost.

A lesson in success

Our world will try and dictate its definition of success: beauty, talent, intelligence, wealth, fame and more. Yet, if our children grow up to achieve some of these things yet end up being emotionally disconnected from family and friends, or much worse, their saviour Jesus, then really they’ve failed, not succeeded.

For remember what Jesus said: “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36)

Plus, they might grow up to be like Miley Cyrus. Enough said.

‘One Direction: This Is Us’ opens in Australia Thursday 19th September. Rated PG.

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