Meet The Parents Review by Tim Wick
Quick, what is the most common fear in the world?
Now since you are on the web, I know all of you went out, did your research
and determined that the fear of public speaking beats out the fear of
heights by almost two to one. But you see, I disagree.
Our greatest fear is actually the fear of being embarrassed. That is why
everyone is afraid of speaking in public. We are horrified at the prospect
of making fools of ourselves. The reason for this is, of course, because it
is horribly funny when someone else is made a fool of.
That is the basic premise behind Meet the Parents. Greg Focker
(pronounced like it's spelled) must endure a weekend of terror as he tries
to impress the father of the girl he wants to marry. Played by Ben Stiller,
Greg is a bundle of nerves only barely under control for the majority of the
film. In the beginning, Greg is simply making simple social miscues. The
embarrassment of those social missteps only drives him to make decisions
that make it more and more likely he will never impress anyone.
Robert De Niro is Jack Byrnes, the father that every man in America hopes
his bride to be doesn't have. De Niro is not known for his comic work, but
that is probably just because he hasn't had a strong comic vehicle.
Midnight Run and Analyze This have both been good showcases for De Niro
as a comic actor - but you have to actually get out and see them. De Niro
does a fine job of underplaying the quirky Byrnes when he could easily have
taken the role too far. The secret to good comic acting is to remember that
the character never knows he or she is funny and that secret is not lost on
De Niro or Stiller.
The trick to making this film work is that the central conflict is not
between a "hero" and a "villain". We are meant to sympathize with Greg, but
Jack is not supposed to be a jerk. He is an overprotective father - not a
serial killer. Jack may be overbearing, scary and judgmental, but it is
because he thinks he has his daughters best interests at heart. Even as we
sympathize with Greg, we recognize every miscue he makes and bang our
collective heads against the wall because we would never do that.
The even handed direction by Jay Roach, who is best known for directing the
Austin Powers films, really helps keep the film fair. We get a balance
between Greg's slow burn and Jacks icy cold scrutiny but we never get enough
information to be completely aware of where the film is going next. There
is some foreshadowing that is a bit obvious (early in the film, Greg is
cautioned that the cat cannot be put outside - guess what happens), but
overall I was actually surprised more than once by the direction the film
chose to go. Roach could have easily turned Jack into the "villain" of the
piece, but he cleverly keeps both central figures human.
So as Greg keeps putting himself into more embarrassing situations, Jack
functions as the catalyst to make them even more embarrassing than they
needed to be. As the audience, we are simultaneously horrified for Greg and
horrified at ourselves because it's just so darn funny. As a result, we
resolve that we will never speak in public. See how cleverly I have tied my
review of this movie into my first two paragraphs?
If anything is an issue in this movie, it is that this film fails (like most
Hollywood pictures) to realistically look at the female side of the
equation. Greg's fiancée (and Jack's daughter) Pam is completely oblivious
to the high amount of stress that Greg is going through and her every
behavior pretty much just makes everything worse. It seems to be unfair to
the character that she is essentially the bone the two dogs are fighting
over and she really doesn't have any ability to be her own person. As I
said, this is endemic of Hollywood filmmaking that doesn't really have the
time or inclination to notice that the female characters could add more to
the story. Pam's mother is equally secondary to the plot, being little more
than a stereotypical caring mother whose primary function is to tell her
husband when he is acting like an ass.
But the fact is that I laughed a lot at this movie and my complaints above
are more about the movie industry in general than this particular film. In
particular, there is a moment involving a deceased relative of Jack's that
is one of the funniest scenes put to film this year.
Meet the Parents is a fun film that was well worth the time. Ben Stiller is
rapidly becoming one of those actors whose films I will make the time to
see. Even if the movie is a dud, he is never a dud in them. Try not to let
this movie convince you that you should never speak in public.
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