About My Father

Hollywood has probably produced as many comedy 'family meeting family' type films as they have comedies in general. Many have graced the big screen, i.e. "Meeting the Parents", The Proposal", "It's Complicated", "Butterflies are Free", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"  to mention a handful, so Hollywood felt it was time to offer us yet another 'family' film is the shape of "About My Father".

This film centers around Sebastian (Sebastian Maniscalco) who is encouraged by his fiancee Ellie (Leslie Bibb) to bring his immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo (Robert De Niro) much to Sebastian's reluctance, to a 4th of July weekend get together with her super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family, mom, Tigger (Kim Cattrall), dad, Bill (David Rasche), brother, Lucky (Anders Holm) and other brother, Doug (Brett Dier). The weekend develops into what can only be described as a culture clash, leaving Sebastian and Salvo to discover that the great thing about family is everything about family. 

Others to round out the cast are Adan Carrillo as young Sebastian, Navv Greene as TSA officer #1, Henry Pao as TSA officer #2, Colby Shinn as Brett and Jessie Camacho as Gloria. 

This was remarkably well directed by Laura Terruso ("Pits and Starts" '17, "Good Girls Get High" '18, "Work It" '20) plus TV, shorts and a video. I say remarkable since her experience isn't extensive. Some of the staging and pacing was a bit stiff, but her ability to encourage her actors to emit the emotions needed to convince the audience that these characters exist was spot on. Given more work behind the camera will only improve this filmmaker--certainly the TV and shorts have definitely helped her. It was surprisingly well written by virtual newcomer to feature films, Austen Earl (TV) and Sebastian Maniscalco (TV and TV specials). Considering this story is basically about Maniscalco's life presented in a narrative way from his beginnings as a child to his adulthood and his relationship with his father, Salvo, it certainly helped him in writing this, I'm sure Earl was pivotal with his input as well. Because both writers have only delved in the TV realm, this film took a bit of time to find itself, however once it did, it simply moved right along. It wasn't quite as funny as the trailer would dictate, but definitely was able to convey to its audience a certain amount of humor when needed. It would be interesting to see what these writers would be capable of given more feature film work. Time and opportunity will only tell. De Niro basically yawned his way through this film being the consummate pro that he is, but even the supporting cast was effective. 

Comedies are a mainstay of the Hollywood industry--some crafted well and others crafted poorly, but this having two unknown writers to feature films, it was definitely i nice film once it found its bearings. And like most comedies out there, it has a story with a nice ending tied with a nice bow, and isn't this the way we want to see most comedies?

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                              Rated: PG-13                                          90mins.