By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Lawrence Sher
Cast: Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, Harry Shearer, Glenn Close, Terry Bradshaw, J.K. Simmons, Ving Rhames, June Squibb, Retta, Katie Aselton, Katt Williams, Ali Wong, Ryan Cartwright, Brian Huskey Katie Aselton and Christopher Walken.
Rating: Poor.
Cinematographer Lawrence Sher, makes his directorial debut with “Father Figures” a very unfortunate debut that was everything but funny.
The movie tells the story of Kyle Reynolds (Owen Wilson) and Peter (Ed Helms) two twin brothers who found out recently that their mother Helen (Glenn Close) has been lying to them about their “deceased” father.
They both decide to embark on a trip to find their potential father. Not only they will be in a race against time but they will learn and cherish the real meaning of life and appreciate each other.
The problem that I saw in “Father Figures” was the plot itself. The movie doesn´t work and I felt that I was watching a carbon copy of the 1988 film “Twins” directed by Ivan Reitman. The only difference is that “Twins” did worked and it´s a movie that everybody remembers. With “Father Figures” I don´t think it will be the case.
The screenplay written by Justin Malen, who wrote last year´s “Office Christmas Party” was very lame or even worst than his previous film. I didn´t feel identified with any of the characters with any of them and it was too slow for a genre like this one.
Lawrence Sher directing was also weak and he only cared about making the film visually good, which I didn´t see here either. I understand the background that Sher comes from but he knew better where was he standing and the movie was a complete mess.
The cast of this film is completely wasted and you have very good talent in this film in. Most of the cast is an A list that figures Academy Award Winners like Christopher Walken and J.K. Simmons and of course Glenn Close who is one of the most versatile actresses in this industry.
But like I mentioned before the cast won`t save a movie. It will draw the attention for people to watch and buy tickets for it but that is not enough.
The movie was predictable from beginning to end and when the second act of the film started it´s when I started to see some real trouble.
I knew that the film was going to be bad, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt but this was too much.
This year has been a good one in comedies like “The Disaster Artist”, “Ladybird” and bad ones like “Baywatch”, “A Bad Mom´s Christmas”, “Daddy´s Home 2” and now “Father Figures”.
There was only one funny scene in the film and that was it. In a comedy you need to go all the way and I didn´t see that here.
The comedy genre can be one of the most generous ones since you can get away with being predictable but at the same time is the most challenging since you need to have original and convincing scenes.
Hopefully this is a learning experience for Lawrence Sher, Justin Malen on making movies of this genre and I wish that they succeed in their next project.
“Father Figures” is one of the major disasters of the end of 2017 and I cannot recommend it for any reason whatsoever.