It Runs In The Family Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)April 28th, 2003
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY
Grade: B
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten
MGM
Directed by: Fred Schepisi
Written by: Jesse Wigutow
Cast: Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Cameron Douglas, Diana Douglas, Bernadette Peters, Rory Culkin
Screened at: AMC, NYC, 4/21/03
If you were invited to write a screenplay based on your own life story but given latitude to fictionalize details, what would you use? What would you delete? Would you be so self-serving that you'd not even mention those aspects of yourself that embarrass you? On the other hand, would you be so racked with guilt that you'd freely open up as though you were on the Jerry Springer Show or on Oprah? When Jesse Wigutow wrote the screenplay for Fred Schepisi's movie "It Runs in the Family," he probably assumed that many people in the audience would know some details about the actual lives of Kirk Douglas and his son Michael, and maybe even about Michael's own son, Cameron and, hey, even about
Kirk Douglas's former wife, Diana Douglas. They're all in the
movie.
Readers of "People" magazine and the gossip columns like Page Six in the NY Post may pride themselves on how many elements of the film are based on the real experiences of this notable family, but that's just some icing on the cake. What you go to this film for is a fairly realistic portrayal of upper-middle-class life in the family setting without special effects or particularly conspicuous stun work or gunshots. Family drama is the warp and woof of daytime TV, but what differentiates a soap opera from a sincere tale is the way the story unfolds. "It Runs in the Family" is not filled with dramatic events but rather sticks to small details that fray the relationships that are illustrated. Nor do the screenwriter and director try for closure. The end is a question mark as, indeed, every family issue that is not resolved is a work in progress. This is what gives the film its resonance and
authenticity.
Lots of little things go on throughout the story. The Douglas family and others like Bernadette Peters in the role of the wife, Rebecca Bromberg and Rory Culkin performing as the 11-year-old son, Eli Gromberg, go about their daily lives awash with incidents. Two people in the family die during the course of the story. One incident of near-infidelity occurs as does a drug bust on the slacker 21-year-old Asher Gromberg played by Cameron Douglas. In the end, Schepisi has given us some mature comedy, a dollop or two of sentimentality, and a look at what may well be happening in many households of the upper-middle-class level, enjoying spacious and well-furnished apartments and houses and dinners in the finest restaurants.
Alex Bromberg (Michael Douglas) is, like many of the other characters, not exactly the stuff of Greek tragedy but he is neither villain nor saint. Though a wealthy attorney working in the firm that his father founded, he is not opposed to an occasional pro bono in favor of Harlemites on a rent strike and he does put in time each week in a soup kitchen where he is aggressively pursued by a fellow worker (Sarita Choudhury). A chip off the old block, Alex's son, Asher, is pursued by women though in some cases they may feel they owe him one for the marijuana he supplies to them, often on credit. We wonder why he is in Hunter College, a public institution with much lower tuition than private universities, and since he lives at home he is saving his folks considerable bucks that they have to spend on him.
Despite its authenticity there are scenes that no one in the audience could really believe, such as a Viking funeral service that two lawyers, Alex and his father, Mitchell, perform for Mitchell's dead brother. But that's OK: a touch of the surreal adds to the comedy -drama.
Though the film is engaging enough, we wonder how we are supposed to feel for people who are so rich. When Rebecca reads the riot act to Alex for the former's possible extra-marital activity, she does come across as over-reacting, especially nothing really happened between Alex and his soup-kitchen associate. The cutesy part involving 11-year-old Eli's first date with a runaway girl who, despite a nose-ring, looks like your neighbor's daughter and not like a desperate child, is adorable enough, but also the stuff of TV.
Ultimately we wonder whether the plot has a real point to make given the lack of anything that truly seems at stake. If the family is being highlighted as an example of people who do not communicate they way they should, how many such units do?
Rated PG-13. 101 minutes. Copyright 2003 by Harvey Karten at
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