MEET THE PARENTS
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 1:48 - Released 10/6/00
While I am a fan of both Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, I must
say I am not too impressed with their latest collaboration, Jay
Roach's Meet The Parents. The film is a retread of an unreleased
1992 version written by and starring Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth
Clarke, directed by Glienna. Apparently, after that 75-minute
film failed to sell, Glienna acquired De Niro and Roach as producers,
hired James Herzfeld and John Hamburg to soup up the screenplay,
and convinced Roach to direct.
It would seem a safe bet, given the success of Roach's Austin
Powers movies, the current popularity of Stiller (There's
Something About Mary, Keeping
The Faith), and the legendary stature of De Niro, but
the plot is too similar to Mary to be ignored, and in fact,
the likeness tends to point up this film's inferiority to the
1998 blockbuster. In that film, Stiller played the misunderstood
nice guy attempting to win the affections of the girl amid various
other suitors, and one famous scene had him wrestling with a pampered
family dog. In this film it's the girl's parents he's trying to
win over, but again, the odds seem stacked against him; he is
embarrassed, ridiculed, and abused by nearly everyone despite
his good-natured attempt to take all the attacks in stride —
and here the beloved pet is a cat. In addition to Stiller's typecasting,
De Niro is playing his stock role of the intimidating tough guy,
an ex-CIA spy hunter who is also Stiller's prospective father-in-law.
The Herzfeld/Hamburg script supplies a few laughs here and there,
but nothing compared to Mary.
Just as Chicago male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) is about to
propose marriage to his live-in lover, Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo),
she learns that her sister has received the same proposal from
her physician boyfriend, and more importantly, their overly protective
father Jack (De Niro) and mother (Blythe Danner) have approved
the match. As they travel to her home on Long Island for the wedding,
Pam coaches Greg to relax and be himself, but as soon as they
arrive, trouble starts. First, Greg's bag containing the diamond
engagement ring he had planned to give Pam as a surprise is misplaced
by the airline. Then he learns that he's not allowed to smoke
during the weekend because Jack sees smoking as "a sign of
weakness." Within the first few hours of arrival, his career
choice is ridiculed, he breaks the urn containing Jack's mother's
remains, and the cat-loving Byrneses discover (from Pam) that
he is not a cat man. As the wedding draws near, things go from
bad to worse. Greg is suspected of being a pothead, secretly videotaped,
and forced to take a lie detector test, all while chawing nicotine
gum and trying to retrieve his suitcase.
This film is almost too real to be funny. It is one uncomfortable moment after another — and that is what Stiller does best, but director Roach would have done well to tone it down a bit. Scenes that are supposed to be funny, like the legendary zipper accident in Mary, are just uncomfortable. De Niro is also not playing his role with as much comedic sense as he should; Jack's coldness toward Greg is sometimes funny, but usually just downright mean. And although Pam occasionally has a romantic word or two for Greg, it is often she who gets him into more trouble. The growing sense of Greg against the world becomes too intense for laughs, and the film's inevitable, pat conclusion is not remotely believable because of this. The immense talent of this cast is largely wasted here, although Danner gives a surprisingly real performance as Pam's mother. ***½