Sebastian Maniscalco may be the hottest comic in the country right now, but you wouldn’t know it from his film debut in About My Father. This generational comedy is so unfunny, it’s downright embarrassing. It feels like it was written in the 1960s and left to gather dust in a drawer. Even Robert De Niro, at 79 the oldest member of the cast, can’t save this ragged hand-me-down from being a total snooze-fest. It’s like the dialogue is competing with a laugh track that never comes.
It’s a shame, really. You might think that Maniscalco, using elements from his own upbringing, would have created a lightweight vehicle to ease his way into films and expand his career possibilities. But no one comes off well here. The actors seem to have been asked to perform at full volume and then kick it up a notch further just to make sure you get it. The writers have tried to cram in as much PG-13-level crude humor as possible, but even De Niro is restrained from unleashing his normally colorful vocabulary.
De Niro plays a good-natured New York hairdresser who needs some convincing from his son Sebastian to make the trip to a posh community outside of Washington, D.C. to tend to the bride, Ellie. But from the moment they arrive, everything feels off. The hosts, a comfortable Waspy multimillionaire family, exhibit no savoir faire and don’t have a clue how to speak with the perfectly nice guy their daughter has brought home for inspection. It’s like they’re stuck in the past, unable to engage in any meaningful conversation.
There are a few moments when the dialogue threatens to get serious about things that matter, but old Bill, the magnanimous, self-satisfied man of the mansion, puts the kibosh on that in short order. It’s a missed opportunity to explore the rich man’s aversion to serious talk about money and how he made it to the top. Instead, the film feels bland and lifeless.
There are a few less-than-notable set pieces and one goofy stunt involving a hapless gent losing his bathing suit in the water. The young adults are well-scrubbed bores, leaving De Niro to inject some much-needed color and oomph into the film. His good-natured wallowing in his own Italianism proves refreshing after so much bland Waspiness.
Overall, About My Father is a forgettable film that fails to deliver on its promise. Stick to Maniscalco’s stand-up comedy instead.
Title: About My Father
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Laura Terruso
Screenwriters: Austen Earl, Sebastian Maniscalco
Cast: Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, David Rasche, Kim Cattrall, Anders Holm
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hr 29 minutes
