Movie Review: 'About My Father' Is Sweet But Not Funny

1/5

Robert De Niro plays Salvo Maniscalco in About My Father. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Ellie's parents, hotel tycoon Bill Collins (David Rush) and Senator Tiger MacArthur (Kim Cattrall), are wealthy and have planned a weekend at the country club. Ellie's brother Lucky (Anders Holm) is competent and Doug (Brett Dyer) is in a new era of recovery.

The cultural clash between Salvo's working-class Italian-American upbringing and Collins' conspicuous consumption is natural. Some conflicts may be based on Maniscalco's life, but the film struggles for jokes.

Salvo counts every penny, so he asks the country club about the prices on their menu, though Bill assures him it's still his pleasure. It's not really a joke though. Salvo just makes a scene with the Collinses and the waiters at the diner, talking about the price, or lack thereof.

Salvo is a hairdresser, so when Tiger asks him to do his hair for a TV appearance, conflict arises. Angry Tiger goes on MSNBC and can't hide the fact that his anger is actually caused by his hair.

The problem with this joke is that they never confirm that Tigra will be discussed on MSNBC, perhaps for fear of alienating the political side of the audience. But the joke will only work if he uses a real topic to talk about his hair.

At least Salvo is trying to get along with the Collinses, even with Doug and his new breasts. In all three Faker films, De Niro's character is literally trying to break up his daughter's marriage.

While Salvo raised Sebastian with tough love, Bill and Tiger compensate by trying to remove every hardship from their children's lives. Sebastian and Ellie's parents are trying to protect their children from the negative experiences that cannot be avoided in life.

Even if the parents were right, and in this movie they are wrong, they should still let their children have the learning experience. So About My Dad is certainly less toxic than other dysfunctional family comedies, but it's not funny.

Sebastian freaks out on the helicopter flight from the airport, but the biggest joke in this scene is when Salvo gives him a lemon wedge to inhale. Sebastian also had an accident with his aviator boots, causing his wardrobe to fall apart. Thankfully, the score isn't as straightforward as some of De Niro's more compelling comedies.

Some of the lines were obviously added in post-production, as De Niro and Beebe deliver them in shots where no one can see the lips move. The best the writers could do to copy them was to have Ellie call Salvo "Bob Barker's backseat."

Maniscalco may have observed all of the above in his real life and could have worked as a stand-up comedian, but those observations didn't translate into cinematic comics. At least the family is more beloved than Fokker , let alone Ticket to Heaven , but the structure of the comic is dysfunctional.

Fred Topel, who attended Ithaca College Film School, is a Los Angeles-based entertainment writer for UPI. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012, and a member of the Critics Association since 2023. Learn more about the work of his in fun.

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