The Steps

This movie shot for more than it could handle, in my opinion. It looks like it was intended to be a dysfunctional family comedy like The Family Stone or many other "homecoming" style movies about holidays or meeting the new spouse or whatnot -- there are many movies in this category.

But the overall tone of the movie is less comedy than of a kind of hollow absurdity. The actors appear to have been told to inhabit the script as if it were a Chekhov play. As if the inherently ridiculous things that were happening could be played straight without real- world consequences or effective symbolism.

In a comedy, with a sufficiently comedic tone, those ridiculous moments could be forgiven as just being ridiculous, and you can laugh at the absurdity of it along with (or at) the characters. But they instead try and play those moments off as just that much more extreme moments of personal humiliation that have driven their characters' failures. And instead of exploring those particular ideas, the narrative plods right along as if it were a comedy, almost completely ignoring these moments for the rest of the movie. And the characters tend to drag us down along with them. It gets difficult to watch sometimes because of this awkwardness. This may have been intentional, I don't know. It's certainly possible to blend these elements and have the result come out really well, and you have to give props to the filmmakers for trying, but it's just not there.

There are some pretty good performances here if you can look past its flaws. Lahti is fabulous, as is Chriqui. Ritter is what you might call serviceable -- he seems to be projecting that same sort of awkward conflict between seriousness and comedy -- but he at least seems to get it, whatever that "it" might be in this case. And although the writing gets a little flimsy and self-satisfied at times, it's mostly pretty entertaining. Just don't expect a whole lot.

What a lovely movie but we all know that a government soulless automaton social worker would never allow that couple to adopt, EVER! Only a PC couple (PC people hide all their sins, they are great actors) would be allowed to adopt, period! For that reason and that reason alone I rated the movie a 9 instead of a 10. I hate unreality, basically a fairy tale, even when the fairy tale is heartrending and wistfully enjoyed with the occasional tear. Every performance in this movie was spot on, every performance interesting and unique. James Brolin was excellent and it's good to see that Christine Lahti is still fetching, quite lovely actually, despite being in her mid-sixties, she is very appealing. Christine plays a woman who should be every man's desire, a team player who puts the ones she loves first despite the personal cost to herself plus there is the hot factor. This is a thoroughly enjoyable vehicle and all should give it a go despite the departure from today's reality, but isn't that what movies do?

A newly blended family of adult children each with their own peculiarities, fears and resentments and locked away in an isolated house in Northern Ontario…what could go wrong? It's a great set up to explore family dynamics, buried emotional scars, forgiveness, isolation and the inherent comedy that exists in all families. If your family isn't laughing at itself half the time you all still have a ton of work to do. That is the message that I took away from this film

The Steps is funny, charming and feels authentic, as if the writer / director Andrew Currie must of lived some iteration or version of this story. It has a kind of idiosyncratic lightness to it, but the comedy is grounded by serious themes and emotions. Andrew Currie has such command of the craft of directing that you kind of become a silent sibling in the corner and let it all unfold in front of you.

I watched The Steps at Cineplex on Friday night. OMG it was so good!!! Jason Ritter plays this New York business dude who was fired, but pretends he's still got a job. Emannuelle Chriqui (from Entourage) is his sister who was a bit like me when I was in my 20s! They head up to northern Ontario to meet their new step mother and step siblings and the sh*t starts to happen. I really loved everything about this movie. It was funny, and charming, and really smart. Part way through I realized there was real emotional depth at work. It crept up on me, and I really started to feel the pain from these characters. It just felt like a lot of the people I grew up with. I went with my guy and he really loved it too. 10 out of 10!!!! So good, check it out. You will love it!!!

Jeff (Jason Ritter) and his sister Marla (Emmanuelle Chriqui) are invited to visit their father Ed (James Brolin) and his new wife Sherry (Christine Lahti). They are joined by Sherry's kids; David (Benjamin Arthur) and his wife Tammy (Kate Corbett), Keith (Steven McCarthy), and Sam (Vinay Virmani).

I like a few of these actors. They are trying to be funny. There is a few chuckles along the way. It doesn't have enough energy. The comedy needs some punching up. The indie filmmaking needs to be sharper. This is mildly amusing.