About My Father (2023)

​"About My Father" stars Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, and Kim Cattrall. Released on May 26, 2023, the film has a man inviting his immigrant father to spend the weekend with his girlfriend and her family.

The film was directed by Laura Terruso, who also directed "Fits and Starts", "Good Girls Get High", and "Work It". Parents can be embarrassing more times than we can count, especially when you're attempting to impress your lover and their family. But amid their humiliating mishaps, they always remind us that family is everything. This Memorial Day weekend offers several counter-programming options for people not wanting to watch another Disney live-action remake. While they probably won't affect Disney's iconic mermaid's quest for box office glory, they should at least provide enough entertainment to compensate. One option I'm looking at today is another Meet-the-Parents-type narrative that promises sizable laughs and ruffled feathers. Coincidentally, one of its stars, Robert De Niro, also starred in "Meet the Parents", so this film seemed like destiny for the award-winning actor to take part in. So does the movie provide enough father-son bonding moments to deliver suitable counter-programming? Let's find out.  

The story loosely depicts Sebastian Maniscalco's life and complicated relationship with his immigrant father, Salvo (De Niro). The movie involves the fictionalized version of Sebastian planning to propose to his American fiancee Ellie (Bibb). He informs Salvo, who works as a hairdresser, that he'll announce his engagement during a weekend get-together with Ellie's wealthy family. Concerned about his son, Salvo insists on tagging along for the holiday weekend. This resulted in several mishaps leading to culture clashes between the Italian immigrants and the American upper-class family. 

Sebastian Maniscalco is another comedian that I hardly recognize until recently. He has starred in earlier movies I watched several years ago, like "The House", "Green Book", and Martin Scorsese's epic gangster masterpiece "The Irishman". Unfortunately, they only put him in supporting roles amid their extremely talented main stars. The only time I immediately recognized Maniscalco was from the film's trailer and the recently-released "Super Mario Bros. Movie", where he voiced Foreman Spike. Life in the movie business can surely be surprising when your first exposure to an actor is from an animated family film about the plumber brothers beating the stuffing out of a turtle monster.

This movie looks to be a turning point in Maniscalco's career because it puts the comedian front and center for the first time to reflect on his relationship with his immigrant father. This allowed him to prove his worth of carrying the film with his brand of humor as the main character while sharing the screen with his "Irishman" co-star, Robert De Niro. As for De Niro himself, he's another reason why I was eager to check the film out. He's a great actor to watch through and through, even though his recent choices between his award-worthy performances were quite questionable. Remember "Dirty Grandpa", anyone? Not to mention he's still making children in his late 70s. Now there's an actor with a lot of determination. 

Movies that combine family drama with humor and heart can be easy to come by, especially when we want some escapism from the real world. "About My Father" seems to be another example of this category, but with exploring different cultures and appreciating their traditions. When looking at the film from an audience perspective, this film is admittedly admirable in expressing this commentary and even showcasing Maniscalco's love for his father through the magic of filmmaking. But, unfortunately, from a critical perspective, "About My Father" is also a disappointingly tame and irritatingly restrained family outing that struggles to be as fun as an actual family get-together.

One of the things I can credit the film for without sounding like a heartless idiot is its heartfelt messages. Whenever the film doesn't express its commentary on culture clashes further, it occasionally compensates for it by showcasing the "family" element. Amid the film's mild goofs and stand-up-like dialogue, "About My Father" is a sweet love letter to the parents who make us who we are. In Sebastian's case, he tries to impress Ellie's parents but winds up losing sight of why he came to be who he was, and that's because of his father. Parents can be embarrassing and obnoxious, especially when you attempt to impress someone you like. However, they're also wise and lovable teachers who shape us into the best versions of ourselves. The movie's message is sweet enough to generate some smiles, even though it can be corny and formulaic. Unfortunately, its messages were bogged down by its mediocre screenplay and uneven direction.

If you're expecting "About My Father" to be another wacky "Meet the Parents" movie about different parents clashing with each other, you might be as underwhelmed as I was. Instead, it's more of a family drama involving two families spending their relaxing weekend in a country club, with a few authentic mistakes generating some chuckles. It offers a few mishaps you'd expect from other comedies, mainly the ones from the trailers, but other than that, it's another film that focuses more on the drama than making people do over-the-top stunts for laughs. This direction may be fine for those not into far-fetched comedies, but it did little to elevate its uninteresting drama to compensate for its lack of solid humor. The comedy consists of dialogue poking fun at stereotypes and the main characters' screw-ups, which were surprisingly forgettable. There were a couple of moments that did make me laugh, including Sebastian losing his trunks, but the rest failed to take advantage of its commentary, especially the dialogue.

As mentioned earlier, the film is Maniscalco's first attempt at being the main lead following his number of supporting roles in the past. From what I can remember, I thought he did well in his lesser roles that didn't shine as much as the main leads. Yes, that includes his vocal performance as Spike in "Super Mario Bros". So how was he front and center compared to his previous small performances? Honestly, I thought he did alright. Were his jokes hilarious? No, but I can see that everyone else might enjoy his humor more than I did. Of course, I was new to his comedy compared to my experiences with other comedians like Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. His heart's in the right place regarding his performance, but his comedy chops are something that I need to see more of to understand his approach further. Hopefully, he gets a chance to gain more roles like this later on to do so.

Robert De Niro was also decent in the role of Salvo, Sebastian's father and the main reason for the film being somehow watchable. One reason is his chemistry with Maniscalco. Whether the movie is good or not, the father-son duo is heartwarming enough to make this bland get-together mildly entertaining. It won't earn De Niro any awards for his performance, but it does showcase the actor branching out of his serious roles in a harmless light, even if some were just for extra paychecks. Leslie Bibb was respectable as Ellie, and her family had enough okay moments to help the main leads carry the film, but not by much.

Overall, "About My Father" offers a generous father-son duo that's sadly overshadowed by an underwhelming, formulaic, and humorless family weekend. What seemed to be a hysterical and heartfelt outlook on culture clashes amid the holiday weekend is actually a restrained and uninspired drama-comedy that fails to take advantage of its heart and comedy. Maniscalco and De Niro prove to be a watchable duo. Sadly, they're not enough to overcome its family problems, like its mediocre script, weak direction, and subpar humor. Either I wasn't in the right mood while watching this, or my expectations were too high. Either way, I wasn't impressed with how this family holiday weekend turned out. If you like the main actors involved, you'll probably enjoy the film more than I did. However, if you prefer De Niro to do award-worthy performances again, feel free to skip this get-together.

D+