There is a well known saying: the higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. You can already guess where this is going.....Can you not expect high when the cast includes Dustin Huffman, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Emma Thompson, and Elizabeth Marvel? You can and you should. It even gets high scores in well known movie critics' web-sites. However, in my opinion, this supposed-to-be comedy-drama, directed and written by Noah Baumbach simply does not deliver the promise.
The plot is complicated as the movie as a whole. In its core, the story is about the unemployed Danny Meyerowitz (Adam Sandler) who moves in with his father Harold (Dustin Hoffman), an art professor and sculptor (and his 3rd wife - Maureen [Emma Thompson]). As the movie progresses we meet Danny's daughter, and his younger son, and various other people. Everything becomes one big family mess when Harold enters the hospital, and needs care and support for his daily life.
I will not even try to fully describe what happens in the movie: so many sub-stories, so many entanglements. Yet, despite this seemed potential for a great gerontological movie (aging and retired artist with a complicated family and life story who has to deal with the challenges of aging) - the overall outcome is a great disappointment. So many talking, so many words, so many bizarre and unconvincing dialogues, all lead to what seems an eventually not an interesting story. I struggled to see it to its end (it seemed so long and never ending), and regreted I did not have the courage to stop.... So, now you know: you should skip this movie.
Even gerontological movies can be boring.
Director: Noah Baumbach
2017
USA
Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYzFieit8dI
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