De pères en fils

I can not recommend the first twenty minutes of this film enough. These are the 20 minutes containing some of the best work by Christopher Walken and Michael Caine, or perhaps any film actors in history. Everything about the beginning of this movie leads one to believe that this is going to be a great family drama/comedy. Unfortunately the film takes an odd turn and becomes a road film thats nowhere near as tight and focused as the start. Esssentially this is the story of fathers and sons and crimes unforgiven. The idea of the road trip is to put the skeletons to rest and to bring peace and closure to a very wounded family. The cast of this film that makes up the four male generations of this broken family is excellent. They make a real go at making what happens believable, even though once the VW micro-bus hits the road it falls apart with plot holes and inconsistency. Its never bad, but its never what the first part of this film promised. Still its worth renting or seeing on cable for two of the greatest performances I've ever seen.

I was the composer on this film, and while I recognise that that fact may taint me as blindly partisan on its behalf, I still have to say that

A) I have never seen audiences respond with such obvious affection and warmth towards anything that I've ever worked on, (even including my terminally unemotional engineer, who actually cried, something I never expected in a million years that I would ever see, and doubt that I will again. )

and B)... Just give it a chance. If you hate it, so you blew 20 bucks and a couple hours. feel free to send me a nasty email, and if you make a convincing enough case, maybe i'll personally refund your 20. I doubt I'll have to. This is a wonderful film, made by the kind of person and for the kinds of reasons that we all need to support, if we care at all about what we do, and how it affects people. And I mean people, not industry professionals. See it with a civilian audience, as a human being, and you will be rewarded. This is a splendid movie, and Walken is stunning, and this is one where you just have to take the big city critics with a grain of salt. This movie was not made for them. It wasn't made for professional opinion makers. It was made for you. And yes, I may be prejudiced, but I don't think so.

David Baerwald

I found this in a video store and with the great cast (not always a good indicator!) and the list of awards won I took a chance on it being good. As is often the case when you have little expectation you are most pleasantly surprised. I thought the characters were wonderful the setting and photography beautiful and the soundtrack really made it. There are also nice little touches where an item seen in a passing shot has a connection to something later in the film.

The only weakness I felt was Josh Lucas in the role of the child's father. It was hard to make any genetic connection with the characters played by Michael Caine or Christopher Walken. It's not that his acting was poor he just didn't seem to fit in. Please try and see the movie - I doubt that you'll be disappointed.

I absolutely loved this film, it is everything that a film can be. the only minor flaw, which was un-noticeable to the friend that i saw it with, was Michael Caine's accent drifting across the Atlantic. But you didn't really care.

It is perfectly cast, brilliantly acted, and you believed in and cared for the characters, they are so human with their natural flaws, you are rooting for them all.

The story is fascinating, and it will strike a chord with anyone with a father, particularly anyone estranged from their father. It is funny, witty, charming, touching and delightful.

See it with a loved one...you shouldn't regret it.

I can't give this movie a perfect score, which I reserve for classic, Earth-shattering movies that may truly change one's ways of watching movies. But I give this a high nine, and as it stands, this is one of the very, very few movies that I could watch dozens of times more without ever feeling tired, and wanting more. This is a gripping, fearless movie that instead of drenching itself with tears and syrup, it grips you and plays with your feelings as if it owned you. You'll have to be willing to be taken over, of course, but once you do, you're in for a ride.

Honestly, I find it a bit banal to label this as a "road movie". To me, it's a genuinely comical family drama. I had great laughs with this movie, the way it was written and directed, and with the actors' performances, but especially because it wasn't aching to be a comedy. Nothing here looked contrived and forced, and none of the events, no matter how unexpected, felt like it didn't belong there. And we're talking about one interesting plot here. I suppose you can find a good synopsis of the movie elsewhere, so I'd rather settle on the review proper here, instead of giving details of how the movie goes. Suffice to say, it's a powerful story, intelligently written, cleverly paced, directed and acted with talent and care. You see, most times I demand a film to have content, something interesting to say, which this movie certainly has. But I was also delighted and entertaining by the way the movie was told. Being this Jordan Roberts's first effort, I think it's a particularly impressive one.

As for the actors, you must know them by heart, and if you're a fan of any of them, you won't be disappointed. Yes, Caine's present in only a fifth of the movie's length, but it's a memorable performance alright. Christopher Walken is the main force in the movie, and I really enjoyed his performance and his character, Turner. Lots of fun. Josh Lucas's character, Jason, isn't as immediately striking, but he's quite intricate, and the performance here is just spot on. And of course, the big focus isn't on either of them exclusively, but on their relationship. I just wasn't expecting to be so utterly amazed by Jonah Bobo, though! I was already familiar with his work on the children's cartoon The Backyardigans, doing the voice of my favourite character, no less. But to me, at least, he stole the scene almost every time; even when he didn't say a thing, for he could show only with his facial expressions, his movements and everything else, his character and what he was going through, in particular how curious he was about Turner and how attuned he was getting to him, and vice versa. It's worthy to mention how, in the "making of" documentary, we see he's a playful, intelligent and happy kid, and that he can switch into another kid entirely, wholly absorbed by the movie, with so much ease. I can't say the movie couldn't possibly be anywhere below "okay" with Jonah in it, and yes, I'm aware Caine and Walken are in it too. But the movie isn't just about that. It's much more. And if people can give up their resistance and make themselves ready for a thrilling, shameless emotional ride, this is a movie I can recommend. It's short, yes, but if you feel it's too short, just watch it again.