About My Father, 2023.
Directed by Laura Terruso
Starring Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, Brett Dier, Kim Cattrall, Arielle Prepetit, Jessie Camacho, and Adan James Carrillo.
SYNOPSIS:
Encouraged by his fiancée, Sebastian brings his immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo, to a weekend get-together with Ellie’s super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family.
They are all-familiar plot to director Laura Terruso’s About My Father (which is primarily based on the life of co-writer and comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, playing a version of himself in the lead role), involves the meeting of two wildly different families during a Fourth of July celebratory vacation getaway as one couple, also a somewhat unlikely pairing, comes closer to a marriage proposal.
Sebastian tells his father, Salvo (played by Robert De Niro, although portraying the real person), to not embarrass him and deploy the charm that fueled his success as an entrepreneurial immigrant barber. One gets the sense that Sebastian is essentially asking Robert De Niro to save the movie with that endearingly stubborn, funny presence that propelled Meet the Parents to become a commercial hit, spinning off wholly unnecessary sequels in the process (coincidentally, the ending to this film also teases more to come).
Normally, I don’t like to make such direct comparisons, but About My Father desperately wants that film’s chaotic thrust and moving touch. The family of Sebastian’s artistic girlfriend, Ellie (Leslie Bibb), is a bunch of silver-spooned rich folk, with patriarch Bill Collins (David Rasche) in control of a hotel empire, whereas Sebastian is a working-class employee of a rival establishment. In addition to Bill and his conservative wife Tigger (Kim Cattrall), who frequently appears on television pushing back against immigration, they also have two sons (Lucky and Doug, played by Anders Holm and Brett Dier, respectively) who haven’t worked a day in their lives; one is all about hunting and sports, while the other is a spiritual meditator.
About My Father is toothless, unable to confront much of anything regarding these contrasts. The film is more concerned with the class divide from wealth, which is fine, but even then doesn’t come up with anything remotely substantial. There are certainly some laughs to be had here, but unfortunately, they don’t make it any less overwhelmingly awkward watching a film introduce several differences between the lifestyles of these families, only to not do much with any of them, as if the screenwriters are afraid actually to tackle those topics.
Instead, the unfolding story plays like a limp lesson on family being the only thing that matters in the world, which is a noble gesture but also not enough, considering the film itself has already set up other expectations. Screenwriters Sebastian Maniscalco and Austen Earl are unsure whether they want to humanize these characters and the comedy or go for caricatures playing scenes for the broadest laughs possible.
Whenever Sebastian (the character) is interacting with his father, there are some tender moments (such as a nighttime ritual spraying fragrance on themselves to smell good before going to sleep) and serviceable, funny lines with Robert De Niro showing he still has impeccable comedic timing and charm. It’s easy to care about the bond between them and how it will be affected by not only families coming together and clashing for the first time but how Salvo will react to seeing a side of Sebastian that he has closed off from his father because it mostly goes against everything he was taught as a child, even if it’s something as silly and harmless as hiring a personal trainer for tennis.
Then there are lame comedic sequences involving anxiety attacks in helicopters, tennis injuries, and a wacky segment involving a peacock that takes the relative normalcy of this admittedly nutty father into something unhinged that doesn’t fit with the rest of the characterization. Even the rich family members feel like stereotypes rather than thought-out characters.
There is a tonal divide in About My Father that often undoes any worthwhile sentiment about family, not to mention fear in addressing the differences between these characters in any confrontational manner. The chemistry between Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro is there and often amusing “You look like the guy who killed John Wick’s dog,” and the setup is fine, but then the rest of the movie happens. It’s one of the safest, most tame, lamest spins on this story in recent memory.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
