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Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Like Father (2018)

I really like Kristen Bell and I am fond of both Kelsey Grammer and Seth Rogen, so I thought this would be awesome.  It is not bad but it is definitely (as one reviewer called it) a middling melancholy movie, which could be charming, but not everyone would find it so.
One issue is that while it has a lot of comedic elements, it is most certainly not a comedy.  The structural elements are there: a madcap premise involving two people who get drunk and accidentally wake up on a cruise, a wedding flame out, an extravagant set piece involving karaoke, sequins, and Styx. However it is not a couple who go through all this, it is a father and daughter who are estranged and don't know each other at all.  She is mad at him and he is sad, both to have found her and found her as she is, completely work-obsessed despite the (to some) idyllic Royal Caribbean surroundings. Rachel is attached to her phone, but not because she’s scrolling through Instagram, or wasting time on Twitter. She’s simply obsessed with her job.  In the end, the film leaves us with the impression that Rachel and Harry are two sides of the same coin, both having sacrificed relationships for career success.

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