Despite featuring the absolutely magnificent Rose Byrne in a leading role, I must admit I approached Instant Family with some trepidation. Perhaps it was her pairing with that stupid, thuggish oaf Mark Wahlberg as her co-star. Perhaps it was the idea of a white, affluent couple fostering a brood of disadvantaged Hispanic children. Perhaps it was the fact that its writer/director Sean Anders had previously made a string of repugnant cinematic excretions such as Daddy’s Home, Daddy’s Home 2 and, most odiously, That’s My Boy. But regardless of the exact reasons, I don’t think I felt exactly great as I switched this one on with my beloved partner on a random weeknight.

As the movie progressed, though, I was presently surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Not everything about the film works, mind you. It starts slow. Olivia Spencer and Tig Notaro are awkward and weird. And Wahlberg often does little more than stand around wrinkling his brow and acting like a slack-jawed cretin. Yet this garbage is offset by real moments of sensitivity, compassion, warmth and humor.

Unsurprisingly, Byrne knocks her role out of the park. She nails both the tender moments while still allowing her patented form of on-screen insanity to occasionally bubble to the surface. Yet it is probably Isabela Merced who is most responsible for the film’s success. The young actress plays Lizzie, the oldest of the three children fostered by Byrne’s and Wahlberg’s characters. Her performance is raw, complex and deeply emotional. It grounds the proceedings and injects a critical honesty into this story of families lost and found.