Robin Williams is a bit of a hard sell as the crotchety, stuck-in-his-ways father of the film but that doesn’t stop the movie from being an overall enjoyable experience. It’s been critically panned, and I’m honestly not sure why.
The players involved elevate the screenplay (which wasn’t that bad to begin with) to a level where the movie, as a whole, is above decent and pretty funny at times. That’s not to say that it’s without its flaws; the lack of concentration on major thematically elements, the rushing of certain scenes, and–again–the miscasting of Robin Williams are just to name a few. However, in spite of that, the film manages to excel.
Also, to clarify, although I do consider Robin Williams to have been miscast, he still manages to give a serviceable and, at times, fairly good performance. This role was clearly written for a Charles Grodin-type, and although Williams had plenty of range–this was just one role he couldn’t pull off.
Publication: January 2, 2015