The film jumps back and forth between 20 years ago and the present. It revolves around generations of a family, with a domineering father Charles (Willem Dafoe), mother Lisa (Julia Roberts), son Michael (young: Cayden Boyd; adult: Ryan Reynolds), daughter Ryne (Shannon Lucio), Lisa's much younger sister Jane (young: Hayden Panettiere; adult: Emily Watson), Jane's son Christopher (Chase Ellison) and Jane's daughter Leslie (Brooklyn Proulx) and Michael's ex-wife Kelly Hanson (Carrie-Anne Moss).
Charles and Michael have always had, and still have, a strained relationship with each other. For example, as a boy, on a car journey with his parents,