Parenthood (Steve Martin)

(Amazon UK link)

We wanted something lightweight to watch a couple of evenings ago. The last time we saw ‘Parenthood’ was over ten years ago, so we thought it could be a good one to watch. Steve Martin is always good value. The front of the DVD case shows him holding two children upside down.

We had entirely forgotten the story, though it was obviously about family life. I quickly realised that I had confused it, in my mind, with ‘Cheaper By the Dozen’, which also has Steve Martin as a somewhat harassed father.

In ‘Parenthood’, Steve Martin plays Gil Buckman, who is determined to be a perfect father. In the opening sequence of the film, we see Gil as a boy, rather neglected by his father. So it is quickly clear that he is trying to compensate for a less than perfect childhood.

Gil is married to Karen (Mary Steenburgen) and they have three children. Kevin, the oldest, is having a hard time fitting in anywhere. He’s quiet, and not particularly athletic, and is not helped by Gil’s rather pressurised insistence on coaching their school baseball team and putting Kevin in important positions.

Gil has three siblings. One of them is Helen (Dianne Wiest), who is an uptight single mother. She has an older teenage daughter Julie, and a younger teenage son, Garry. Julie is in a serious relationship with a young man called Tod, whom her mother disapproves of, and Garry keeps sneaking out of the house and behaving in other strange ways.

Susan (Harley Jane Kozak) is another sibling, married to Nathan (Rick Moranis) who is also determined to be a perfect father. They have just one daughter, whom they are raising to be as intellectual as possible. The little girl is quite cute but the story rather over-the-top. Nathan is very rigid in his thinking, and this causes stress with Susan who is more relaxed - or would like to be.

Then there’s Larry (Tom Hulce), the youngest and least responsible sibling, who nobody has heard of for a couple of years. He appears at a family gathering and is welcomed by his long-suffering parents. He has a surprise for them… but he’s unappealing, too much of a manipulator and narcissist.

There isn’t a great deal of plot as such; the film is character-based, and revolves around family get-togethers and other interactions between the siblings. Jason Robards is excellent as the rather grumpy father, who nonetheless loves his children - even if he has a hard time showing it. We had entirely forgotten that there’s a great deal of poignancy to the story, and some quite difficult issues are dealt with: absent fathers, teenage hormones, depression, and more.

There’s some humour too; overall, it’s a light-hearted film. Steve Martin is excellent at comic timing, and there are a few great one-liners that made us chuckle. There are some significant innuendos and discussion of sexual activities, which are what give this a 15 rating in the UK, despite no nudity (other than briefly with a small child), no serious violence, and only the mildest of bad language.

The pace is good, the dialogue mostly excellent, the acting either believable or deliberately caricatured, as appropriate. The children do as well as the adults without being twee or annoying.

Overall we enjoyed this film very much and look forward to seeing it again in another ten years or so.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews