Comedies are supposed to be funny and it was distressing to find out that the funniest parts of “About My Father” with Robert De Niro and Sebastian Maniscalco just drew a chuckle. No belly laughs; no knee-slapping; and certainly no fall-on-the-floors. Here’s a comedy film that was supposed to have you laughing at the comedy staple of introducing an insensitive family member to your future family members. “About My Father” doesn’t manage to accomplish much in any one of its 90 minutes.
‘About My Father’
(2023; 90 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by Laura Terruso and starring Robert De Niro, Sebastian Maniscalco, Leslie Bibb and Kim Cattrall)
A LOT OF PROMISE WITH NOT MUCH DELIVERY
“About My Father” had promise as it opened Memorial Day weekend this year. It was co-written by popular standup comedian Sebastian Maniscalco and its outline evolved from the stories he tells about his life and his wife’s very wealthy family. However, Maniscalco should have left the story to his standup routines and found another comedy vehicle in which he could be a headliner. As the credits roll, you know that “About My Father” just doesn’t work.
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The movie fails at all levels because “About My Father” is hobbled by being just a series of vignettes as told in Maniscalco’s standup comedy. The analysis is that the film is wrapped around a series of premises, such as his father’s personality or his Italian heritage contrasted to the background of his girlfriend’s parents, and the resultant one-liners that make for a chuckle or two, but no real laughs.
The focus of the story is Sebastian introducing his Italian-American father to his fiancée-to-be’s WASPy family, yet this tried-and-true comedy premise never fully develops into a cohesive storyline and there’s never any apparent effort to correct the steaming mess as it ultimately winds up.
Director Laura Terruso was saddled with a terrible screenplay and didn’t manage to salvage much of anything in the way of comedy and even Robert De Niro couldn’t pull it out of a deep mire of dreck. Even when there is a scene that has promise such as the tennis match in this one, the audience is let down by incompetent filmmaking – in this case, it’s spoiled by an awful rendition of “he-got-hit-in-the-groin” joke.
The plot of “About My Father” is simple: Maniscalco’s father, who was born in Sicily and came to the U.S. as a child with his parents, wants to meet his son’s family before giving his blessing to the marriage. Further, Maniscalco wants the perfect setting to ask for her hand and an invitation to the bride-to-be’s family Fourth of July holiday and annual party appears to make for the place.
Of course, with De Niro playing father “Salvo,” it becomes a different kind of story. Unfortunately, none of it is well told and for those of us who didn’t see it in the theater left us giving thanks we didn’t spend money going to the theater to see it (I borrowed a copy from our local public library).
Now, let’s move on to the work of the top of the cast …
- A two-time Oscar winner and six-time nominee, De Niro does his usual solid effort as “Salvo,” who is a fish out of water in some ways but manages to fit in better than you’d initially believe. The worst thing is that De Niro isn’t given that much to work with as “Salvo” but a fake pony-tail hairpiece at the start and the verve to do the fix the unusual dinner routine – just remember the peacock. In between? Ah, just an excellent actor with crap for material. In the comedy vein, I liked his over-the-top, OMG! effort in “Dirty Grandpa” with Zac Efron (click here to read my review) and he’s won just about every major award and I first enjoyed his dramatic work with the sensationally dark drama “The Deer Hunter” from 1978 (an Oscar nomination that unquestionably in my mind should have been a win). He’s also been in flicks as varied as “The Godfather: Part II” (one Oscar), “Raging Bull” (second Oscar) as well as “Midnight Run” as a bounty hunter (click here to read my review) and “The Intern” as an older guy getting back in a youthful workplace as an intern (click here to read my review). You usually can’t go wrong with De Niro, but “About My Father” was able to master that feat.
- Maniscalco plays “Sebastian” (who else?) and has basically one expression. However, this isn’t his problem as a headliner in a film. He just appears out of place moving through one scene after another and doesn’t really do a good job of conveying his discomfort with the whole family thing and his climactic crying scene with De Niro is just an embarrassment. Maniscalco is much better viewed on a stage as he does his standup work. In “About My Father,” he doesn’t bring much to the table. Maniscalco is in the current No. 1 box office hit “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and has been in “The Green Book” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” as mobster “Crazy” Joe Gallo.
- Leslie Bibb is “Ellie Collins” and brings some energy to the character, but not much else. Bibb doesn’t do anything to really offend as well and not being able to elevate her character. I’ll repeat what I wrote about her in my review of the comedy “Tag:” “Bibb does an efficient job, but I wouldn’t put her down as being top-shelf in the comedy world.” She has also been in the “Iron Man” franchise as well as “Law Abiding Citizen” and “Miss Nobody.” She has a solid resume of 79 acting credits since the first in 1996.
- David Rasche plays patriarch “William Love Collins XII” and “Bill” is nearly interesting to watch. You first believe Rasche will play the part as the typical simpleton WASP billionaire with no clue about anything. However, Rasche does manage to give a little life to “Bill” and offers more than a few moments worth note. Since Rasche manages not to offend, that’s nearly Oscar-worthy in this stinker. He is a prolific actor from soaps to TV to movies and he has 139 credits in a career spanning six decades since the first in 1977. He’s done sitcoms from “Kate & Allie” to “L.A. Law” to “Las Vegas” and “Monk” to the critically acclaimed “Succession” as well as films such as “In the Loop” and “United 93.”
- A Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee, Kim Cattrall plays aggressive mother hen “Tigger MacArthur Collins.” She’s a senator, abrasive, tough and competitive and winds up having De Niro “style” her hair. Cattrall is mostly smooth in the role of “Tigger,” but should have been left to her own instincts in how to handle the parts that turn out just as poorly executed. Cattrall was a missed opportunity for the director, but so was so much else in this film. Cattrall won and was nominated for the legendary “Sex and the City” TV series and was nominated for Primetime Emmys for it for five straight years beginning in 2000. I enjoyed her work in a small role as “Lynn ‘Lassie’ Honeywell” in the iconic comedy “Porky’s” (click here to read my review) from 39 years ago; as a cop-in-training in the comedy classic “Police Academy;” and she was certainly better in the comedy-drama “Turk 182” with Timothy Hutton (click here to read my review). She’s also been nominated for a pair of “Razzie” awards, once for “Worst Actress” (for “Sex and the City”) and the other for “Worst Supporting Actress” (for the film “Bonfire of the Vanities” – and she and the film deserved it).
- Anders Holm plays the “Collins” family son “William Love Collins XIII.” He’s know as “Lucky” because he’s the 13th and does a decent job in executing the character’s annoying traits as the son following in dad’s footsteps. However, Holm always overdoes his character and I can’t tell if it is because he’s told that’s how he must play it or if he goes too far all on his own. In any case, like the other actors, I’m not too judgmental on him overall because of how poorly the director handled this one. Holm was in “The Intern” with De Niro and has also been in “How to be Single” and on TV’s “Workaholics.”
- Brett Dier plays the “Collins’” family odd son “Doug” and does a quiet job of somewhat elevating what should have been the worst character in the cast. He’s stereotyped as the strange son who’s becoming a “healer” with “tuning bowls” (click to see other names), but he isn’t oppressive in pushing it on you even as he plays a flute. He manages not to be too intrusive and never has a totally over-the-top moment. It’s too bad I cannot say the same for the rest of the cast. Dier has been in TV series including “Jane the Virgin” and “Schooled” and is moving his career to movies. He has 57 acting credits since the first in 2006 and has a movie project (“Good Bad Things”) in post-production.
Sadly, there isn’t much in the way of a supporting cast that warrants being mentioned individually in this review. Sadder still, the movie’s credits show 10 people listed as either producer, co-producer or executive producer. Out of all these “producers,” absolutely nothing was produced that managed to elevate “About My Father” to any level other than being called “lame.”
I had looked forward to watching “About My Father” after watching “Tag” on a recent weekend (click here to read my review). Maniscalco and Bibb were in the supporting cast and I was interested to see them in expanded roles. Too bad. “Tag” wasn’t great, but it’s head-and-shoulders above “About My Father” as a comedy and Maniscalco was funnier in his only 30 seconds on screen than in all his time in this one.
“About My Father” is the first movie released in 2023 that I’ve reviewed for my blog and in mid-August it rested at 56th place in U.S. ticket sales with $12 million in ticket sales – and this is behind the re-release of “Titanic” after its 25th anniversary this past November. The No. 1 movie at the posting of this review is “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $547.2 million and at No. 2 is “Barbie” with $526.3 million, according to Box Office Mojo. I’ll update the review at the end of the year with final totals for 2023.
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
- The dish that De Niro makes for the family translates to “Artichoke and Peacock.”
- Maniscalco’s father’s name is Salvatore; his middle name is Joseph; and he attended Northern Illinois University, where he was a brother at the Sigma Pi fraternity chapter.
- Directly from IMDb.com: “Just like Sebastian Maniscalco’s character (also Sebastian), his father was a hair-dresser who immigrated from Italy at age 15.” BTW … the correct spelling is “emigrated.” Correctly put: A person emigrates from one country to another and becomes an immigrant. Too bad the poster of this piece of trivia was unable to spell the word correctly. Also, for just about everyone else today, immigrants are not migrants, which is are people or creatures who move from area to area because of the season, usually in pursuit of seasonal work for people and usually for animals in going “south” for the winter. It has never meant or will ever will mean someone going from one country to another to live in the new country.
- Click here for IMDb.com’s very, very shot list of trivia notes about the film …
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