A studio picture with a premise this contrived shouldn't work, but this 2012 family drama works in ways that are quite unexpected and emotionally resonant because a palpable level of truthfulness emerges with the characters even as the plot teeters precariously on credibility issues. First-time filmmaker Alex Kurtzman, a go-to screenwriter of ϋber-action fare like "Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible III", based his personal movie on events in his own life when he met his own half- sister for the first time as he turned thirty. The plot focuses on Sam, a slick, 31-year-old huckster of a salesman in the bartering business. Just as he gets snagged by a bad deal that costs him the huge bonus he just secured to pay off long-standing debts, Sam finds out his father, Jerry Harper, a legendary Laurel Canyon record producer, has died, which means he needs to come home to LA for the funeral against his will. Reuniting with his estranged mother Lillian becomes challenging enough, but Sam also discovers that his father left him $150,000 in his shaving kit.
The catch is that it comes with instructions to deliver the cash to an 11-year-old named Josh, who happens to be the son of Frankie, a half- sister he didn't know he had. Tempted to keep the cash himself, Sam finds Frankie and follows her to an AA meeting where she shares the sudden news of her father's death and the hurtful anger she feels for not being publicly acknowledged as his daughter. Her pain is what becomes the common bond that she and Sam share and the beginning of a web of lies he tells her in order to build upon his newly discovered family ties. It's this thread of deception that propels Kurtzman's storyline, and the moment you start to feel the movie get phony, he manages to get it back on track through the burgeoning relationship that forms between Sam, Frankie and Josh. Of course, the further Sam delays in telling the truth, the more catastrophic the results. Perceptive performances are critical in pulling off this kind of drama, and Kurtzman coaxes strong work from his cast.
Chris Pine captures Sam's manic energy and evasive nature to a T, and he manages to reveal the vulnerability underneath that shows he never quite gave up on his quest for his father's approval and love. Still etched in my memory as the hot-to-trot bookstore clerk in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", Elizabeth Banks has matured as an actress and delivers a genuinely empathetic performance as Frankie, a single mother struggling with a hardscrabble life and a smart, troublemaking son. She and Pine manage a nice rapport that skirts the incest minefield that could have occurred in lesser hands. Too long off the screen and still looking like People Magazine's most beautiful woman, Michelle Pfeiffer makes her few scenes count as the newly widowed Lillian, who met Jerry back in the seventies when she was a former hatcheck girl at the Troubadour and dreamed of becoming the next Joni Mitchell. She succinctly shares her anger toward Sam for his indifference toward Jerry while slowly revealing her own secrets and fears. As the precocious Josh, Michael Hall D'Addario is given lines only an 11-year-old in a mainstream movie would speak, but he is such a likable young actor that he manages to come across as authentic.
Olivia Wilde has a thankless role as Sam's put-upon girlfriend Hannah, but she provides more depth than the plot device she represents, while indie mainstay Mark Duplass ("Humpday") seems to be showing up everywhere these days, this time as Frankie's conveniently available downstairs neighbor. There are cameos from familiar character actor Philip Baker Hall ("50/50") as Jerry's attorney friend and Jon Favreau as Sam's belligerent boss. A.R. Rahman ("Slumdog Millionaire") provides the original music, while cinematographer Salvatore Totino really captures the vibrancy of LA life beyond the stereotypical images. Kurtzman sometimes abuses quick cuts to emphasize Sam's restlessness, but when the truth is revealed in the story, it reinforces the message he sincerely conveys in appreciating the value of family and the importance of forgiveness. His clever use of home movies to bring this message home results in the heartbreaking impact that was obviously intended. I definitely recommend this surprising movie.
The catch is that it comes with instructions to deliver the cash to an 11-year-old named Josh, who happens to be the son of Frankie, a half- sister he didn't know he had. Tempted to keep the cash himself, Sam finds Frankie and follows her to an AA meeting where she shares the sudden news of her father's death and the hurtful anger she feels for not being publicly acknowledged as his daughter. Her pain is what becomes the common bond that she and Sam share and the beginning of a web of lies he tells her in order to build upon his newly discovered family ties. It's this thread of deception that propels Kurtzman's storyline, and the moment you start to feel the movie get phony, he manages to get it back on track through the burgeoning relationship that forms between Sam, Frankie and Josh. Of course, the further Sam delays in telling the truth, the more catastrophic the results. Perceptive performances are critical in pulling off this kind of drama, and Kurtzman coaxes strong work from his cast.
Chris Pine captures Sam's manic energy and evasive nature to a T, and he manages to reveal the vulnerability underneath that shows he never quite gave up on his quest for his father's approval and love. Still etched in my memory as the hot-to-trot bookstore clerk in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", Elizabeth Banks has matured as an actress and delivers a genuinely empathetic performance as Frankie, a single mother struggling with a hardscrabble life and a smart, troublemaking son. She and Pine manage a nice rapport that skirts the incest minefield that could have occurred in lesser hands. Too long off the screen and still looking like People Magazine's most beautiful woman, Michelle Pfeiffer makes her few scenes count as the newly widowed Lillian, who met Jerry back in the seventies when she was a former hatcheck girl at the Troubadour and dreamed of becoming the next Joni Mitchell. She succinctly shares her anger toward Sam for his indifference toward Jerry while slowly revealing her own secrets and fears. As the precocious Josh, Michael Hall D'Addario is given lines only an 11-year-old in a mainstream movie would speak, but he is such a likable young actor that he manages to come across as authentic.
Olivia Wilde has a thankless role as Sam's put-upon girlfriend Hannah, but she provides more depth than the plot device she represents, while indie mainstay Mark Duplass ("Humpday") seems to be showing up everywhere these days, this time as Frankie's conveniently available downstairs neighbor. There are cameos from familiar character actor Philip Baker Hall ("50/50") as Jerry's attorney friend and Jon Favreau as Sam's belligerent boss. A.R. Rahman ("Slumdog Millionaire") provides the original music, while cinematographer Salvatore Totino really captures the vibrancy of LA life beyond the stereotypical images. Kurtzman sometimes abuses quick cuts to emphasize Sam's restlessness, but when the truth is revealed in the story, it reinforces the message he sincerely conveys in appreciating the value of family and the importance of forgiveness. His clever use of home movies to bring this message home results in the heartbreaking impact that was obviously intended. I definitely recommend this surprising movie.