Meu Pai, uma Lição de Vida

I am a Ted Danson fan. However until today, I have never seen the Movie" Dad ". I sat in my chair and could not get up to do anything. I could have put the movie on still, but I just could not tear myself away from it. It is warm, moving, realistic and Ted Danson and Jack Lemmon had me convinced that they were actually living their roles. It has been years since I cried at a movie, but this one, my tears flowed like a stream. I cannot say enough about it. This is the very first time, I ever went through any trouble to give my opinion about a movie or an actor. I felt I had to tell you how it affected me.

This movie was one of the most sensational drama movies I have ever seen. It is so true with real-life experiences, and it is sure to touch you emotionally. It is a story about how spending all of your life chasing the almighty $dollar$ and success can certainly have great drawbacks. It is a prime example of how success should not be determined by how much money you make, but by what you have to give up in order to achieve it. In this case, it was Ted Dansen's family that was given up. This movie can be related to on a personal level with almost anyone. It is certain to bring tears to your eyes, and make you want to pick up that phone...and make those calls you have put off for so long.

I think this is Jack Lemmon's greatest performance and the supporting cast are incredible, including Ted Danson who always appears to me to be slightly frenetic in a grim kind of way. Here he is truly believable and his scenes with his own son tug at your heart they are so real. No Hollywood quickfix here for the relationship, the boy is simply closer to his grandfather than he is to his own father and nothing will change that fact.

What I liked most about the film was that the theme in less worthy hands could have been made sloppily sentimental, but here it is totally restrained both in script and direction and it makes for a really meaningful movie. The characters remain real all the way through and the script does not transform them into wondrous saints by movie's end.

It is the wonderful understatement in it all that captivated me and made me weep at the end. Jack is truly unforgettable and Olympia magnificent in her dryness and cynicism. I have seen it 3 times and each time relished another scene a little more. This time around it was Jack dragging his wife around to meet the neighbours he was not even aware of before and her long suffering face at this new and reinvented Jack makes you laugh out loud. Bravo to all. An 8 1/2 out of 10. And that scene where they dance, oh me oh my......who needs naked bodies writhing on a bed, this has sensuousness, love and intimacy in it, the real kind. Oh for more of those scenes in movies!

Jack Lemmon's performances in Mister Roberts and Save the Tiger don't add up to his work in DAD. There is only a handful of actors that can make you laugh and cry. Jack Lemmon shows his true acting ability in this film. Even with a weak supporting cast, Jack Lemmon makes DAD a film worth seeing again and again. 8 out of 10 stars giving all 8 stars to Jack !

Jack Lemmon is magnificent in this touching family drama from television creator Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties) about an overworked son, (Danson) not having seen his father (Lemmon) for over two years, is shocked to discover how deteriorated his father has become under the over-protective eye of his mother (Dukakis). Lovely musical score provided by James Horner.