The Thing About My Folks

Meh. This will not go down in history as a memorable movie. At least not for me it won't. The only thing memorable about it would be Peter Falk's less than masterful overdoing of the Jewish father schtick. And I generally have quite a soft spot for Peter Falk...

The movie overall was OK, but just in the most general sense. The plot line started out interesting but fizzled badly in the end. No real strength to the whole story. Paul Reiser did not do his best work here either. I don't think any of the actors really meshed with each other. Instead of telling a story, they kept kind of acting "at" each other. There was a woodenness about the whole effect. Even the great Olympia Dukakis could not get into her character's groove. And you only saw her for about ten minutes at the very end. But it's the worst acting I've ever seen from her, ever. Which isn't saying much, I know, because she is otherwise a fabulous actress. Let's just say her acting in this probably embarrassed all her acting coaches. It was not good.

Elisabeth Perkins was pretty, as usual, but completely lacked character or depth. The few witty lines she was given somehow just didn't make the cut either. They all fell kind of flat. You somehow knew they were meant to be funny, but just couldn't see the actual funny part for yourself.

All in all, a pretty ho-hum little movie that I would never take the time to watch again.