Film: About my father (Lionsgate)
Cast: Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, Brett Dier and Kim Cattrall
Director: Laura Terruso
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 90 minutes
`About My Father`, with a screenplay by way of megastar Sebastian Maniscalco and Austen Earl, doesn’t really feel just like a function comedy. It is written like a long stand-up comedy routine, with simply the proper pauses after each comedy set. Thankfully it’s no longer a monologue. There are different fascinating gamers and acts right here. This is a type of revised, skimmed model of “Meet The Parents,” however with out the outlandish makes an attempt at comedy and wildly irrelevant behavioral acts that had been its spine. `About My Father` is funnier and extra simply digestible since the writing sticks to the fairly plausible even supposing it feels hopelessly contrived and overplayed in maximum puts.
The plot is loosely based totally (supposedly) on Maniscalco’s exact courtship of his spouse Lana Gomez. The narrative right here has Chicago hotelier Sebastian Maniscalco the use of a 4th of July birthday party invite to the ritzy Virginia summer time house of Bill and Tigger Collins (David Rasche and Kim Cattrall), as the easiest environment to suggest to his female friend Ellie (Leslie Bibb). But his widowed father Salvatore (Robert De Niro), a flamboyant Sicilian hairdresser, hasn’t spent a 4th of July vacation weekend with out him and is refusing to offer him the heirloom ring supposed for his meant till he himself has vetted the fogeys. So clearly, Sebastian has no selection however to ask him alongside. That reasoning is a little foolish as a result of Maniscalco doesn’t precisely dwell together with his father, and Salvo, the self-made guy motivated by way of worry of shedding his son to Ellie, additionally doesn’t ring true as a result of Seb and Ellie had been a pair for a while now.
Overstated set-ups making an attempt to attain laughs are par for the path right here. Along the way in which, you might be handled to slapstick bordering on mawkish sentiment to be able to ranking emotional hits. There are humorous moments right here however it’s no longer all clean flowing or steady. The slapstick isn’t overly a hit and the schmaltz feels somewhat hokey. Maniscalco, in his first lead function, seems to be attempting too arduous whilst De Niro, in spite of his function being a stereotype, manages to attain with a crusty however lovely flip.
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