FOLKS
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1996 Chuck Dowling
**1/2 - C:Tom Selleck, Don Ameche.
In Folks, Tom Selleck has to travel to Florida to admit his mother into a hospital for an operation. There he discovers that his father (Ameche) is rapidly losing his mind. After their trailer burns down, Selleck takes his parents back home with him. Soon after, he loses his job, his car, his furniture, his apartment, and his wife and kids leave him. Sounds like an engaging drama about family and Alzheimer's disease right? Wrong, it's a comedy. An attempted one anyway.
In the first ten minutes, Folks establishes itself as a wacky physical comedy. Then we meet Selleck's dad (who we're told has something like Senior Senility Disorder Complex but don't be fooled, it's just a nice way to say Alzheimer's) and now for some reason the writer can't decide whether or not to write a comedy or a drama. We're supposed to feel sad when Ameche puts his shorts on backwards, but minutes later we're supposed to laugh hysterically when he drives his car backwards at about 90 miles per hour almost killing half a dozen people. The whole next hour is just like that.
Then, the film takes a truly bizarre turn when Selleck's mother suggests that Selleck should kill them in order to get the insurance money. Most people would find this twist to be repulsive, but me and my sick, twisted mind enjoyed it. We're talking dark, dark comedy here. If the writer could had left out the social commentary about the elderly and just stuck to comedy, Folks would have been one hilarious movie.
Have A Question Or Comment? Email Me At chuckd21@southeast.net
-- Chuck Dowling
Please visit my movie reviews web site at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ You'll be glad you did.
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