Review: Parenthood

The story of the extended Buckman family, an average but dysfunctional American family. Steve Martin is well-meaning Gil, married to Karen (Mary Steenburgen) and father of three kids, including sensitive and high-strung Kevin (Jasen Fisher) as well as a daughter played by “Curly Sue” herself Alisan Porter. Gil’s frankly lousy father is Frank, who favours no-hoper youngest son Larry (Tom Hulce) as well as his prized 1935 classic Ford. Larry has come home with a young son named Cool (yep) and an obvious gambling problem. Well, it’s immediately obvious to his mother (Eileen Ryan) and to Gil, but Frank can’t see Larry for the mooch he truly is. Dianne Wiest is Frank’s eldest daughter Helen, a divorcee left to look after two moody and rebellious teens (Martha Plimpton and a young Joaquin Phoenix). Harley Jane Kozak is Frank’s other daughter Susan, married to a nerdy overachiever (Rick Moranis) who loves his family, but has his priorities all out of whack. Keanu Reeves plays Plimpton’s well-meaning idiot boyfriend Todd, Dennis Dugan proves to be a better actor than director playing Gil’s schmuck of a boss, and a horribly miscast Paul Linke is Phoenix’s teacher who comes a-courtin’ Wiest. Dude gives off Terry O’Quinn in “The Stepfather” vibes to me.

One of my all-time favourite films, this 1989 comedy-drama (An early form of dramedy perhaps?) is the best film Ron Howard (“Night Shift”, “Splash”, “Ransom”) has directed to date, and is the best film on several of the cast member’s filmography, including star Steve Martin. A portrait of an ordinary but dysfunctional family, it’s a film almost everyone can surely relate to. Whether it’s Steve Martin’s determination to be a better father than his own, or Dianne Wiest struggling to raise two unruly teenagers on her own. Perhaps you’ll identify with scenes where Martin’s youngest boy refuses to wear more than a cowboy hat, holster and gun to bed, while poor young Alisan Porter subsequently pukes all over Martin. It might admittedly focus on a white American family, but otherwise I really do think there’s something in this family depiction for everyone to latch onto.

For me, I’m particularly fond of the theme of fathers and sons in the script by Howard’s buddies Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (Howard’s “Splash” and “Night Shift”, and the uproarious “Spies Like Us” for John Landis). The relationship Jason Robards has with his two very different sons (played by Steve Martin and Tom Hulce) and then Martin’s own worries in raising sensitive son Jasen Fisher are both funny and genuinely moving. Robards is pitch-perfect as the barely-there father and now grandfather who used to take Martin to baseball games as a child and pay an usher to sit with the kid, as we see in an amusing but rather savage opening scene. Martin’s cynicism towards his father as an adult is both funny and barely concealed anger. The sad thing is that the son he favours, youngest son Tom Hulce is a long-time no-hoper with a long string of get-rich-quick schemes that never result in Hulce getting rich, and always involve a loan from dad. Hulce is solid as the frankly pathetic, unreliable flake and your heart breaks for Robards when he finally realises the kid’s never gonna learn. Your first tip that this guy’s a flake? He names his son ‘Cool’. It says everything, really. Second tip? When he tells Robards ‘I’ve got something really big lined up. I’m gonna be taking care of all of you!’. Yeah, no you won’t. You’re gonna piss all your earnings away, piss your parents earnings away and come back for more you spoiled, ungrateful, flaky weasel. Robards gets a lot of dialogue in the film, but his best work here is when he lets his face say it all when he finally realises what Hulce truly is: A flaky gambler and serial moocher.

As I said earlier, I believe this is the best performance Steve Martin has ever given. He really nails this guy’s emotional baggage of having been (barely) raised by this inattentive father who dotes on the wrong son, and the kid that Martin was with the father Robards was has shaped the man and parent Martin has become to his own kids. He has a particularly hard time dealing with his most sensitive child Kevin (Jasen Fisher). He clearly loves the high-strung kid, but like a lot of parents with kids who may need special attention or extra care, he’s frustrated and a bit unsure of what to do. I think it may even be more relatable in 2020 than it was in 1989. It leads to a truly wonderful scene where Martin, having been told that the clown he ordered for Kevin’s birthday party isn’t showing, comes up with a last-minute replacement and makes his son’s day. I also liked when the sweet young Kevin tells his dad he’d like to grow up to work alongside his dad so they can still see each other every day. Melts your heart. Martin gives an excellent performance, he’s funny, warm, awkward, bitter, sensitive, completely relatable. He should’ve earned a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars in my view. Mary Steenburgen is also very fine as his loving wife, especially in a classic bit where attempts to relieve some of Martin’s stress, with comedically disastrous results.

The other major character you might find yourself seeing a lot of truth in, is Dianne Wiest’s divorced mother, who is struggling to hang on to two very moody teenagers. Wiest was Oscar nominated for this, and in my view it's a thousand times better her Oscar wins for “Hannah and Her Sisters” and particularly “Bullets Over Broadway”. I never really bought her performance or character in the latter, whereas here she’s much more credible. She’s excellent as a frustrated divorcee with a tempestuous daughter who is always getting into arguments with her, and a brooding son who hero worships a father who is quite happily moved on from his former family. A lot of people will relate to this section of the family, especially the scene where a young Joaquin (then going by the name Rain) Phoenix calls his dad up to ask if he can come and stay with him. You might see her character as a bit of Oscar bait, but Wiest makes it real flesh and blood. As the aforementioned tempestuous teen daughter, a perfectly cast Martha Plimpton is second only to Olivia d’Abo’s Karen Arnold on “The Wonder Years” in playing such a character. Also worth a mention is a perfectly cast Keanu Reeves as Plimpton’s idiot impressionable boyfriend. He’s kind of a hopeless, tempestuous idiot, but also kind of sweet and well-meaning. Rick Moranis probably plays the most caricatured member of this extended family, but is also the source of some of the film’s best laughs. His overachieving nerd isn’t a bad guy, he’s just got his priorities mixed up as a parent and husband. How mixed up? He’s got his kid reading “Kafka” and doing complicated maths at age 4-6 or something. He looks at Martin’s youngest son wearing a bucket on his head with disdain because he simply doesn’t understand the concept of and importance of doing stupid, silly stuff for fun. He gets a humanising bit where he sings ‘Close to You’ – badly – in front of wife Harley Jane Kozak’s class full of kids. I really miss Rick Moranis on screen. I respect his decision to leave the movie business due to family commitments and a lack of desire to do work that he himself hasn’t had a lot of creative input with. However, your mind does tend to wonder about all of the roles out there over the years he could’ve been great in. So in that respect, it’s a bit of a shame.

There’s lots of little funny bits throughout the film worth mentioning, some revolving around Helen Shaw as the great-grandmother. However, her funniest moment is off-screen: Martin, after being told by wife Steenburgen that she thinks Shaw is very wide, responds with ‘If she’s so brilliant, how come she’s sitting in our neighbour’s car?’. We also get a couple of very funny fantasy sequences where Martin imagines Kevin’s future dependant upon the choices he makes in raising him. Take a look at the ‘good’ fantasy, and note that at Kevin’s graduation, Martin’s the only family member attending. Hilariously selfish. Meanwhile, in the ‘bad’ fantasy, look out for Ron’s dad Rance Howard in his requisite cameo. His brother Clint also has an hilarious cameo as an angry spectator at the little league games.

Barely dating a bit, this is still a hugely underrated and in my view, great film that works wonderfully well in both comedic and dramatic departments. The cast is mostly flawless, the script perceptive, relatable, and quite often hilarious. Must-see if you’ve not caught up with it yet, somehow. One of my Top 50 films of all-time.

Rating: A+