For Richer, for Poorer

"For Richer, For Poorer" stars Jack Lemmon...which is ample reason to watch this made for HBO film. He is, as you'd expect, very good in the lead. That being said, the script itself is pretty bad...lacking any sort of realism or common sense.

Aram Katourian (Lemmon) is a very successful business man...having created a small empire of organic food supermarkets. Money is no problem, as he's worth many millions and you'd think the guy would be happy. However, he's not...as his college educated son is a bum with no ambitions other than to live off daddy's money. Now here's where the script goes off the rails. While any SANE person would simply cut off the son and tell him to get a job, Aram concocts a truly stupid plan...to sell off his stores, give away ALL his money and force the son to see the need to get a job. However, at no point did it occur to him to just tell his son to get a job, or, possibly, to tell him they are out of money while keeping a nestegg in the bank. Instead, in his late 60s, Aram plans on going to work and recreating his fortune with his son assisting him...which doesn't happen. Instead, the son remains a bum and Aram contemplates suicide. Does this make much sense? No....nor is it especially funny. Sadly, it gets MUCH worse by the end of the film...when any semblance to reality seems to have vanished.

The bottom line is that the studio hired a wonderful actor but never bothered to come up with a reasonable script. It's just pretty dumb and beneath Lemmon's considerable talents.