Father Figures (2018)

Kyle (Owen Wilson) and Peter Reynolds (Ed Helms) attend their Mother’s wedding to find out that after years of thinking their father had died due to illness, their Mother had lied and their real father may still be out there. they both set off on a trip to try and find him, they get to spend some time together, and they meet some interesting characters along the way.

First of all, I wanted to see this because the trailer looked like this would be okay. The reviews, however… THE REVIEWS!!! People can be so mean, but it worked, it roped me in further and I decided I had to see it.

So, this story isn’t an original idea, siblings set off to find their parents, they get into a pickle more than once, there’s a twist, and at the end everyone is happy and after years of bickering – the siblings get on great. But it was fine, I don’t want to use the word light-hearted, (because what is light-hearted about absent parents?) but I will, because it is an easy comedy. It doesn’t intend to offend anyone.

The most redeeming thing about this film was the cast.

                                 

I’ve seen so much controversy around the cast, and didn’t realise before how much of a ‘marmite’ actor Owen Wilson is for some people. I think he’s a gem, he’s like Hugh Grant; he basically always plays the same character, but it works, and rarely flops. I thought he was good in Father Figures, but I am a Wilson fan. This is the same with Ed Helms, I am a fan, so I thought he was good. The chemistry between the two though, is what I’ve seen to internet kicking off about. Was it really that bad? I mean, I had to remind myself that they were brothers sometimes, but it wasn’t completely awkward throughout. The cast did an alright job, I guess?

I have to say though, I believe a chunk of the responsibility for the bad parts of this film have to go to the script. The writing for this was poor, it could have been rounded up in a much neater way. There were times when this film went off on a tangent, and other times it just dragged. You were given glimpses of what the characters are actually like, and it started to get good, and sometimes even funny… and then we lost this. The pacing was just so off, it was almost like the editors were like ‘ehhh, that’ll do, I’ll just put whatever in, it’s nearly home time’.

Saying that, though… I don’t think the comedy was a massive flop, that kept the film light, and actually watchable, however – if you don’t like dad jokes, dick jokes, or dirty jokes about mums even slightly amusing, just don’t bother. I’m sure this film could offend some people, but really, it was pretty harmless. It’s no comedic masterpiece, but there were some bits of dialogue that absolutely tickled me, and I ended up doing a massive belly laugh.

One problem I did have, was the score. I was SO aware of this throughout the film, because we get a nice landscape of one of the random places in America they arrived in and playing on top of this was Grouplove’s Ways to Go. I don’t remember hearing more than 1 chorus of a song. Was there a soundtrack? Was there any other sound? Did they forget to put that in?

This film wasn’t bad in any sense. Well, not as bad as the internet claims it is anyway… It just wasn’t really very good.

Average comedy, average performances. Bad pacing, bad writing. Though, despite all that – somehow it was watchable.

5/10

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