Meu Pai, uma Lição de Vida

This movie hits, it hits very hard. No one is let off easy in this film about an old man (played to perfection by Jack Lemmon) who has his wife do everything for him. BUt his wife has a heart attack and is put in the hospital. His son (Ted Danson) has to return home to take care of his father. What comes from there is an adventure that will warm you heart as fast as it will break it. Jack Lemmon is very believeable as the father that you will believe that he actually is 85 years old and Ten Danson has never been better in a film. This film devlves into hard topics such as divorce, marraige and family relationships and none of these subjects are delt with lightly and is sure to bring a tear to the eye of everyone whether you can realte to these characters or not.

It is very rare that I give any film 10/10 but then it is very rare that I see a film that deserves it. This is one film that truly deserves it. the huge names that fill the main roles play their parts perfectly. I was surprised that neither this film nor the anyone in either the main two roles or the supporting roles was up for an academy award because they all should have been in my opinion. OK so maybe not all, but certainly somewhere along the line one ore more of the aforementioned list should have been This film was extremely heart-warming and tugged at the heart-strings in equal measures.

Ted Danson plays a man called John Tremont who rearranges his life when his mother, Bette, (his father, Jake, has allowed her to do virtually everything for him. He has therefore had his self-esteem whittled away over the last fifty years or more that they have been married including not having a lot of fun and driving him everywhere)has a heart-attack in a supermarket. Suddenly the high-powered business man has to find his relationship with his father again and he does this by giving back to him what is missing from his life. The bond they end up with is extremely strong. So much so that he stays with his father the whole time when he, after his mother gets well and comes out of hospital, ends up in hospital himself.

The supporting cast are just as good. You know instantly that daughter Annie is the one that normally looks after her elderly parents while John does the high-flying businessman bit only to then take more of a back-seat role when John rearranges his life. Mario, the third sibling, cannot be there to help as much as he would like due to living so far away does return to the family when there is need for him to do so. And then there is Billy who is obviously more attached to his Grandfather than his father This is a film that HAS to be seen.

Genuine tear-jerker that has the elderly Olympia Dukakis falling ill and leaving husband Jack Lemmon in limbo. Dukakis has done all the work in the relationship and Lemmon is helpless, plain and simple. Son Ted Danson comes to the rescue though and Dukakis starts to recover slowly. However trouble looms as Lemmon will be diagnosed with cancer and go into an emotional tail-spin that could kill him. A sappy screenplay works to near perfection here and steady direction helps the film's cause as well. Watch for a young Ethan Hawke as Lemmon's grandson. Heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time. 4 stars out of 5.

Life is sometimes a hard thing. People must learn what is the most important thing in life. This film shows us how we must to face a critical situation. Perhaps when time is gone we try to recall that time too late. The family is the most important thing we have.

The Film : I think it's very crude and real. there are many old ones in abandonment situation and this film illustrates the necessary love for the greater ones of the family. Although TV is treated in format, the argument either is developed and distributed in the time with a crescendo of emotions very well displayed.

Jack Lemmon makes a magnificent work in Jake Tremont roll with such so pathetic depth that it seems real

Ted Danson is discovered like a good actor, not only for series of television, but also for cinema too. He plays more than credible son dedicated to his father treating to compensate the lack of affection felt in both directions in the past times

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.