Fathers and Sons

In many ways this film, originally made for Showtime audiences, feels like a triptych: there are three stories here written and directed by three men - Rodrigo García, Jared Rappaport, Rob Spera - with the unifying thread being that the three stories deal with three families who live on the same street. The technique of creating and producing each story is different, some more successful than others, but it does serve to enhance the concept that no two fathers and sons have the same sort of relationship.

In one story there is an overbearing father, obsessive compulsive in his parenting to offset his own feeling that his father wasn't involved with him. When the stronger parent (the mother) dies, and the man's father dies, he is left to watch the maturing of a son he really doesn't know. In the second family the distant pilot father (a fine John Mahoney) is adulterous, has a crumbling marriage, and tries to understand his gay son's life and lifestyle (the son here being portrayed by Ron Eldard in his consistently fine tradition of character development). How he interacts with his son when his son's first love succumbs to AIDS is the glue that mends his life. And in the third story the cantankerous father is dying and his successful lawyer son (Gale Harold) returns home to prove that indeed he has fulfilled his father's expectations only to discover the longer for intimacy at the end of the father's life.

The families are loosely connected and the name of the street on which they all live serves as the name of each of the three segments. A good idea, a bit of varying showmanship of concept, and in the end it all works fairly well. The actors are consistently fine with some cameos by older actors we haven't seen in a while. There are no solutions to father/son roles here, only a gentle exploration of how important the impact of that relationship is on forming future lives. Recommended. Grady Harp

Ten years later I'm still talking about this movie! It is worth the time! I loved every aspect of each relationship between the sons and their fathers. It was thoroughly enjoyable. This movie is a must see and is guaranteed to provide good conversation. It is humorous. This movie is delightful and entertaining. Ten years later I'm still talking about this movie! It is worth the time! I loved every aspect of each relationship betweenTen years later I'm still talking about this movie! It is worth the time! I loved every aspect of each relationship between the sons and their fathers. It was thoroughly enjoyable. This movie is a must see and is guaranteed to provide good conversation. It is humorous. This movie is delightful and entertaining.

I am a big fan of Gale Howard his style of acting reminds me a bit of of James Dean and Marlon Brando. His style is that of the acting studios of the 50's. I would love to see him perform in a stage play.

He has two more DVD's that have not yet been released and i hope he continues to empress in these films as well.

His performance in QAF was awesome.

He should become a big star. His performance in this movie was outstanding!

If you have not yet seen Particles of Truth or Fathers and Sons I would strongly recommend them.

I went to see this film because of Gale Harold, I think this is his best film to date, the stories were wonderful, funny, complex and meaningful, and there was a nice flow to the movie. Even though this was made by Showtime, it didn't have that made-for-TV feel at all. I hope this film will get a wider distribution, Sarasota seemed like a weird place for it to have its World premier and I hope that they will be traveling with the film. It really it very well done and I cannot recommend it enough. This film deserves to be seen, oh yeah and it has a great cast too! I recognized probably about 90% of the cast. . If you're a Gale fan you really need to make an effort to see this film, and even if your not, you should go and see this film anyway!

There is a far superior summary of this film on this website and it states more about the characterization of each of the three stories than I will attempt. My only interest in this film was to watch Gale Harold, a talented actor who seems to be stalling his career in some of the most obscure indie films with nice concepts but little substance.

Father's and Sons is a painfully slow paced film in which one queries what else is there beyond the middle class whining of families whose daddies didn't give their lives over for their kids -- get over it. Middle class does not entitle boys to the E ticket at Disneyland each and every time. So the father is a disappointment, with son's disappointing as well and their families also a disappointment. Boo-hoo! The characters generate little sympathy or interest.

This is not a deep or even compelling trio of stories, but the actors including a wig-wearing Bradley Whitford (West Wing) and Harold attempt to rise above the mediocre scripts. Made by Showtime, there is a TV quality about the production values. The casting of several unknown actors however, demonstrate equal pairing with stellar TV and stage actors. Unfortunately, it is not sufficient to raise the film beyond the banal level.

Lastly, I wish Gale Harold would do something worthy of his talent. This project, as with many of his film choices does not demonstrate the range which he showed in his stellar guest performances on "Street Time" and briefly the last season of "Deadwood." Disappointing for fans of Harold.