Father’s Day - * * 1/2*

Father's Day

Father’s Day is a mildly humorous comedy that, though enjoyable, doesn’t quite live up to the talents of its cast. Jack (Billy Crystal) is a high powered lawyer who shares one thing in common with Dale (Robin Williams), a struggling artist. Seventeen years ago, they both shared the affections of Collette (Nastassja Kinski). Now she has returned with news: she had a son, Scott (Charlie Hofheimer), and she doesn’t know which of them the father was. Now Scott is missing in San Francisco, and she enlists Jack and Dale’s help to track him down. Naturally Jack and Dale are opposites thrown together in a variety of circumstances. The script has several fundamental flaws, the chief of which is lack of originality. The talent in this film manages to lift these predictable situations, and does manage to squeeze humor out of some situations where you’d think none would exist. Unfortunately, they can only carry the film so far. The film is full of missed opportunities, and its simple attempts at sentimentality fail. The pairing of Williams and Crystal is the film’s only selling point. The secondary characters (including Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bruce Greenstreet) are uninteresting and uninspiring, and director Ivan Reitman has certainly churned out better films. However, although the film has little going for it, it does prove to be funny in several spots. You don’t need to rush out and see this one, but it’ll be a good matinee or video rental, when you find the time.

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