I HAVE to admit I was not looking forward to "It Runs in the Family," a dramatic comedy about intergenerational family dysfunction starring every member of the Douglas dynasty known to man (paterfamilias Kirk, ex-wife Diana, son Michael and lumpy grandson Cameron) as members of a kooky New York clan, for the simple reason that the previews seemed to go out of their way to make it look lame. Imagine "On Golden Pond" crossed with "Grumpy Old Men," and you'll have an idea of what I was expecting.
The scene of a slightly mush-mouthed Kirk Douglas, as retired lawyer and recovering stroke victim Mitchell Gromberg, berating his attorney son Alex (real-life scion Michael) as a "schmuck" in front of Alex's slacker son Asher (real-life grandson and novice actor Cameron) made me cringe at the thought of yet another movie about a grown child's reconciliation with the unfatherly S.O.B. who was never there for him and how this legacy affects his own children -- but this time played for cheap laughs.
Kirk Douglas, left, son Michael Douglas and grandson Cameron Douglas as three generations of the Gromberg family.
(Andrew Schwartz/MGM Pictures)
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Much to my surprise and delight, the movie is nothing like its marketing.
Thanks to the understated direction of veteran Fred Schepisi ("Six Degrees of Separation") and a subtle, quirky but believable script by Jesse Wigutow ("Ugly Naked People"), Kirk Douglas turns in a lively and watchable performance. So does the rest of the cast, which includes Bernadette Peters as Alex's emotionally adrift wife and Rory Culkin as their strangely taciturn youngest son. Along with Diana Douglas, who plays Mitchell's ailing wife, they turn in complex -- and at times sweetly affecting -- performances. Even the character of Asher, introduced early on as an obnoxious, irresponsible, weed-smoking college senior with no visible virtues, started to grow on me, not because I liked the guy, but because Cameron Douglas's unforced portrayal is less the caricature of a jerk than something that feels like the channeling of his own genuine, though flawed, humanity.
Opening around an unpleasant Passover Seder, "Family" follows the series of not-so-small crises that ensue in the Gromberg family, including a death or two, a career in jeopardy, accusations of marital infidelity, a serious brush with the law and a young boy's coming-of-age.
I know. That's a lot for a miniseries, let alone one feature-length film. Somehow it works, though, because, like life for most people, I suspect these bad things swamp but never sink the Grombergs' boat. "We're a family," says Alex, in response to one of the many subplots that threaten to (but never do) overwhelm the small and ultimately personal film. "We'll figure it out."
And figure it out they do, though most of the entanglements that arise in "Family" are never really resolved by movie's end. This, of course, feels realest of all. How do any of us "figure it out" anyway? By stumbling through the denial, pain, regret and lack of communication that cripple us, all the while supported by, yes, that corny thing called love. More than an emotion, love, according to "It Runs in the Family," isn't something you say, but something you do, often despite yourself and the people you're related to. It doesn't fix anything, but without it we'd all be lost.
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY (PG-13, 109 minutes) -- Contains occasional obscenity, drug use and sexuality. Area theaters.
