Review: Father Figures đź‘Ž
Isn’t it nice when in this day and age there is a reliable constant that just never changes? Well, you are probably thinking about something else right now, but I really needed an introduction for this one and a lame one like this kind of fits. For that purpose I mean the fact that any movie associated with the name Owen Wilson most likely is a dud. That is pretty much what I expected when I saw him appear on screen last Monday, in the opening scene of Father Figures [IMDb, Trailer (YouTube)].
In this movie he plays the role of Kyle Reynolds, a good-for-nothing kind of guy, who made a fortune by having his silhouette printed on a barbecue sauce bottle and now lives a life of expensive cars and beautiful women in Hawaii. His brother Peter (Ed Helms) on the other hand became a gastroenterologist, in honor of their father, who supposedly died of colon cancer. After two years of not having seen each other they meet again at their mother’s (Glenn Close) wedding. As weddings in movies like this go, there are a lot of awkward moments and tension between family members. All that culminates in a stand-off between Peter and his mother after he found out that she has been lying about who their father was for the past 40 years.
Peter’s world shatters as everything he had built his sense of self on is suddenly gone. He presses his mother to tell him their father’s real name, so that he can start to fill the void and find out who his father really was. She points him towards American football legend Terry Bradshaw, with whom she had been in a relationship in the 70s. Peter decides to pay him a visit and his brother spontaneously decides to accompany him, despite Peter’s reluctance to let him come.
By that point I was already fairly certain of what was about to unfold and so it did: What starts as a simple trip to meet their father becomes a wild goose-chase through the country from one potential candidate to the next. And of course every one of them initially believes that the two are correct about being their sons. Right until suddenly some memory or fact comes to light why it would be impossible for them to be related. Step by step they find out more about their mother’s past and stumble onward to the next link in the chain.
As I initially already said: The special kind of humor associated with Owen Wilson turns this whole thing into a pretty ridiculous affair. They get into all kinds of trouble along the way. From an accident with a train to accidentally assisting a criminal.
There really is not much more to say. It’s a below-average comedy film with a very predictable plot, mostly blunt and not particularly creative jokes and an abundance of fighting between the two brothers. I did not expect anything from the movie and got only a couple of small — and for the most part almost embarrassed— laughs out of it.
If you are looking for movies that are actually good and genuinely entertaining, may I suggest that you give Home Again or Hampstead a try instead of this one?
