When I first heard about “It Runs in the Family,” I thought it might be good. After all, it starred Michael and Kirk Douglas together. Maybe it’ll be like “The War of the Roses” meets “Paths of Glory,” or “Wonder Boys” meets “Lust for Life.”
I guess I just didn’t expect it to be more like “Don’t Say a Word” meets “Diamonds.”
In this family reunion flick for the Douglases – Michael’s mother and son, Diana and Cameron Douglas, costar – and we all know how painful reunions are.
There is barely a plot to this film – it’s merely an excuse to get all of these Douglas folk together on one screen. Feisty Mitchell (Kirk), who is recovering from a stroke the year before (which coincides with Kirk’s real-life stroke) is trying to get the spark back in his life, mostly with the help of his wife Evelyn (Diana, Kirk’s real-life ex). Workaholic Alex (Michael) is a lawyer with a posh office and a non-existent relationship with his family. Slacker Asher (Cameron) is a college student with no direction and no ambition – unless it has to do with sex or drugs.
If these characters all seem cliché, it’s because they really are. Screenwriter Jess Wigutow, in his big budget debut, borrows pieces from hundreds of other films in order to craft a 2-hour movie everyone has already seen before. From the minute a surely Kirk opens “It Runs in the Family” at a doctor’s office, the picture’s plot is telegraphed, playing all the trite notes.
Whether it’s a last waltz before an “unexpected” death or the self-involved lawyer discovering his heart of gold, the story treads no new ground.
In fact, the film seems merely to be an excuse to get three generations of Douglases on the screen, which director Fred Schepisi hopes will carry us through the entire film. It seems as though even Wigutow and Schepisi knew it wouldn’t be enough, so they tossed in the occasional fart or sex joke to spice it up, but by the time Rebecca (Bernadette Peters) finds a pair of lacy panties in her husband Alex’s coat pocket, it just seems like a last ditch effort to be interesting.
Each Douglas clan member makes it through the film relatively unscathed, but each will definitely avoid leaving this one off the greatest hits collection. Kirk uses the combination of his age and his speech to add a little comic relief to the plot – Mitchell giving Asher sex advice is a little creepy, but its hard not to at least chuckle at the scene; after all, Kirk is just so old – but his scenes also reek of tacky, sentimental crap. During his slow dance with his wife, Mitchell leans in and gives Evelyn a little peck on the nose, but the scene is so over the top, its obvious how its going to end.
In fact, the only Douglas who has an excuse when it comes to the mix of immature comedy and syrupy drama is Cameron, who hasn’t proven he can do better yet. Having just been on the Australian soap “Neighbors” – the same one as singers Natalie Imbruglia and Kylie Minogue – Cameron hasn’t spent years developing his acting chops. Instead, he gets a free ride into the mainstream on the coat tails of his famous family, a common trend in modern Hollywood (the Barrymores, anyone?).
But at least one person seems to realize what he’s doing is less than stellar. Rory Culkin, a member of a different acting clan, plays Eli, the youngest member of the Grombergs. He seems more bored with the dialogue than the audience, which is okay in his case, because his talent is wasted on terrible dialogue, most of which consists of looking half-asleep and saying “Whatever” to his parents. While he also rode into the biz on his older brother’s name, Culkin established his own career with “You Can Count on Me,” an indie film with nary another Culkin in sight.
It’s hard to not be disappointed with this film. With the notable exception of “Mr. Baseball,” Schepisi has directed quite a number of highly successful pictures. In such films as “Six Degrees of Separation” and “Fierce Creatures,” Schepisi proved he could juggle comedy and drama and combine them into highly original and highly entertaining films. But he seems to have slacked off with “It Runs in the Family.” The film never quite decides whether it wants to be a dysfunctional family tearjerker – Mitchell and Alex argue over how to react to a death in the family – or a slapstick comedy – Mitchell and Alex come together to say farewell to another deceased family member by lighting his body on fire.
Like “Magnolia,” “It Runs in the Family” attempts to weave together separate snippet stories from each member of its principle cast into a cohesive picture. But instead of using a common theme as the connecting thread like “Magnolia,” this Douglas dramedy uses blood relations, and instead of being a good movie, “It Runs in the Family” is just plain bad.
