Review of Play It Runs in the Family
I have no idea how accurately the story of "It Runs in the Family" parallels the actual story of the Douglas family, whose members play four of the characters. My approximate is that most of the facts are different and a lot of the emotions are the same. Similar "On Golden Pond," which dealt obliquely with the real-life tensions between Jane Fonda and her begetter, Henry, this new motion-picture show seems like a way for the Douglases to test and resolve contrasted family issues--to attain closure, that most elusive of psychobabble goals.
The film is certainly courageous in the fashion it deals with Kirk Douglas' stroke, Michael Douglas' adultery and the drug bug of a son played past Cameron Douglas. Fifty-fifty if the movie doesn't reflect existent life, any attentive reader of the supermarket sleaze sheets will estimate that it comes close. In a way, just by making the film, the Douglases have opened themselves up to that.
My wish is that they'd opened up a little more than. The movie deals with these touchy subjects, and others, but in a plot so jammed with events, disputes, tragedies and revelations that the most serious matters don't seem to receive plenty attention. The picture show seems also much in a bustle.
It introduces united states of america to the Grombergs. Alex (Michael Douglas) is a prosperous attorney whose father, Mitchell (Kirk Douglas), was a founder of the house. Not a bad man, Alex volunteers in a soup kitchen, where a sexy young man volunteer (Sarita Choudhury) finds him and so attractive that she all but forces them to have sex, which they do--almost. Their scenes are stunningly unconvincing, except as a convenience to the plot.
At home, Alex is married to Rebecca (Bernadette Peters) and his male parent is married to Evelyn (Diana Douglas, who was, in an intriguing casting pick, Kirk'due south real-life start wife). Alex and Rebecca take two sons, the college student Asher (Cameron Douglas, Michael's son by his showtime spousal relationship) and the 11-yr-old Eli (Rory Culkin, whose family unit also could inspire a movie). Mitchell also has a brother who is senile and lives in a care facility.
During the form of the moving picture, there will be two deaths, Alex's marriage will most break up because of suspected adultery, Asher will get in trouble with the law, Eli will go on a walk on the wild side with a olfactory organ-ringed 12-twelvemonth-old girlfriend, and Alex and Mitchell volition seem incapable of having a chat that doesn't descend into criticism and resentment. Only the erstwhile folks, Mitchell and Evelyn, seem to accept found happiness, perhaps out of sheer exhaustion with the alternatives.
The film, directed by Fred Schepisi, has moments I fear are intended to be more serious than they play. 1 involves a midnight mission by Alex and Mitchell to set a rowboat afloat with an illegal cargo. I did non for a moment believe this scene, at least non in an ostensibly serious picture. Would two high-powered lawyers collaborate on such an human activity? When it is clear they tin can be traced? Actually? The scenes between Michael and Kirk Douglas, which are intended as the center of the pic, seem inadequately realized in Jesse Wigutow'south screenplay. They fret, contend and feud, but without the sense of take chances and hurt we felt between the two Fondas. Even less satisfying are the marital arguments between Alex and Rebecca, who has found a pair of panties in her hubby'due south overcoast pocket. How they got there and what they mean, or don't mean, could be easily explained by the defensive husband--only he tin can never quite get the words out, and his dialogue remains infuriatingly inconclusive. Equally a result, all of the tension between them feels similar a plot dodge.
At that place are some proficient moments. I liked Kirk Douglas' tearing force of personality, and I liked moments, almost asides, in which Michael Douglas finds moments of elementary humanity amid the emotional chaos. In that location is a lovely scene involving Rory Culkin and his first date (Irene Gorovaia), in which their dialogue feels but nearly right for those ii in that time and identify. Their commencement kiss is a reminder that few first kisses are exactly wonderful. And a scene where Kirk and Diana Douglas trip the light fantastic has a elementary warmth and truth.
But the motion-picture show is simply not clear near where it wants to get and what it wants to do. Information technology is heavy on episode and light on insight, and although information technology takes courage to bring upwardly touchy topics it would have taken more to treat them frankly.
What about a picture in which a great actor, now somewhat slowed by a stroke, collaborates with his successful son in a motion-picture show that will involve other family unit members and fifty-fifty the great actor'southward get-go wife? What does the bang-up thespian's 2d wife (who has been married to him for most 50 years) recollect of that? What well-nigh a motion picture in which the son divorces his first wife to marry a famous beauty, who then wins an Oscar? These musings may seem unfair, only "It Runs in the Family unit" makes them inevitable. The Douglas family would have to make 1 hell of a movie to do justice to their existent lives.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert was the flick critic of the Chicago Lord's day-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.
Film Credits
It Runs in the Family (2003)
101 minutes
Source: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/it-runs-in-the-family-2003
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