FATHER'S DAY
A film review by Michael Redman
Copyright 1997 Michael Redman
** (out of ****)
This film has just about everything going for it. Writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are responsible for two of the wittiest comedies of recent years: "City Slickers" and "Parenthood". Producer/director Ivan Reitman has "Ghostbusters" to his credit. Some of the supporting cast are well respected (Nastassja Kinski, Julia Louis-Dreyfus of "Seinfeld" fame). It's a nice touch that a film entitled "Father's Day" is released on Mother's Day weekend.
But the real reason that it looks great is the inspired teaming of Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, two of the top comedic actors working today. You can easily imagine them bouncing off of each other with quips and ad libs and movie-goers want to get in on some of the fun. The scene in the previews where Crystal is trying to explain who Lou Gehrig is ("The guy who died of Lou Gehrig's Disease." "Wow! What are the odds of that?") is inspired.
Prepare for a major disappointment.
Based on the 1984 French "Les Comperes", the movie is an odd couple buddy road trip film. Happily married Collette (Kinski) is disparate to find her runaway 16 year old son. Being a friendly sort 17 years ago, she knew both Jack (Crystal) and Dale (Williams) in the Biblical sense. Calling and telling each of them that they are the father of her son, she begs them to find him.
Of course both of the fathers accidentally discover the other and pair up to find missing Scott (Charlie Hofheimer). Their journey takes them from a tough auto repair shop to a tough rock tour via encounters with tough drug dealers.
Jack is a sophisticated LA lawyer with a talent for head-butting. Dale, a San Francisco poet with a history of suicide attempts, bursts into tears at the slightest provocation. Both actors are perfectly suited to their roles and pull them off with style.
It just doesn't work. The story is old hat. Most of the shticks have been done before and often. The middle-aged man at a rock concert was funnier on the "Simpsons". With a few exceptions, the jokes fall flat on their faces even though Crystal and Williams do their best to grab them out of the muck.
Part of the problem is that Hofheimer is remarkably uninspiring as the 16-year-old with too many hormones and too little money. Kinski is adequate but nothing special as she exhibits none of the steaming sexuality that has always been her forte and could have been used in a role that is defined by her irresistibility. Louis-Dreyfus does better with Jerry, George and Kramer or perhaps she needs a project with genuinely humorous moments.
Crystal and Williams __must__ have been a hoot on the set, but unfortunately there's not much evidence of that on the screen. There are a few times where their chemistry shows through the mess and those meager minutes are what saves the film from being a total waste of time. The hotel shower scene is occasionally hilarious, but you've seen it before. I get the feeling that the better movie was left on the cutting room floor as outtakes.
If this were ranked on a "Living Up To Potential" scale, it would rate a Zero.
[This appeared in the 5/19/97 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com ]
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