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THE THING ABOUT MY FOLKS Send This Review to a Friend
Peter Falk is the picture-stealer in “The Thing About My Folks,” written by Paul Reiser, who co-stars, and directed by Raymond De Felitta. It’s the sort of role that Falk can make distinctively his own. He plays an overbearing, curmudgeon of a father, Sam Kleinman, with Reiser as his son, Ben, and plenty of issues between them.
Sam is utterly bewildered when he learns that his wife Muriel, played by the superb Olympia Dukakis, has suddenly left him. Wasn’t she happy? Her departure sets off events that we know will result in father-son togetherness. Given the pain in the butt that Sam can be, one wonders what took Muriel so long.
However, things aren’t always what they seem in such films. It would have been much better had the screenplay stuck to the humor in the family relationships. But, of course, we are doomed to a tearful dose of sentiment to give the story heart.
Reiser does well enough in the role, but this is basically Falk’s picture, with Dukakis indulging in some theft of her own. A Picturehouse release.
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