Father Figures

Why do people go to see a comedy in the cinema? To be entertained of course. To have a giggle. To be cheered up after a shitty day. The reason a comedy exists is to make people laugh. A comedy that isn't funny has failed at its very reason for being. Which brings us to Father Figures. 7 weeks into 2018 and we already have a strong contender for worst comedy of the year.

Kyle and Peter are twin brothers. Kyle is a bon vivant who got lucky and rich and Peter is depressed and divorced proctologist ( no guessing what gets mined for jokes here). During their mother's wedding they find out their biological father whom they've never met is still alive and they set out on a cross country roadtrip to track him down. But their mother's swinging drug fuelled seventies lovelife makes things rather difficult for them.

Father Figures is a shit film. It's overlong, utterly pointless and painfully unfunny. It doesn't contain a single likable main character and the characters you want to see more of are unceremoniously shunted out of the film 5 minutes after they appear. It's all made even more annoying by the fact that it's heart is in the right place and it could be made work if even the teensiest modicum of effort was made to improve all of it's separate elements. Look at the above poster for feck sake. It's horrible. It looks like it was thrown together in a few minutes by a child proficient in Photoshop. It's that level of effort that permeates the whole film. No one tries. It bangs of laziness. "Hey lets get 2 fine comedy actors together and see what happens!! Script?? Who cares about that!"

Ed Helms and Owen Wilson are the leads. Wilson does his usual aid back guy schtick and manages to glide through the film in cruise control. Helms just looks embarrassed. Like genuinely, I felt bad for him. Like so many other comedic actors out there he can shine when given the right material but here he just dies on his arse. It's painful to watch. The supporting cast is a who's who of great actors like Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, Ving Rhames and JK Simmons. None of whom get any significant screen time or anything close to a funny line. You get the sense their participation in this film was purely a money making exercise. Walken in particular looks even more whacked out than usual and probably doesn't even remember taking part in this muck seeing as it was filmed 3 years ago and has been sitting on the shelf since.

It's a film that could have worked if the comedic elements of the script had been kicked out and it had been played as a straight drama. On paper it sounds like a heartbreaker. 2 brothers travelling the country to find a father they never knew in an attempt to make sense of the directions their lives took. I think Wilson and Helms could have pulled it off and I wish someone reading the script had suggested it. It's quite hard to believe something this unfunny could get by the reading stage without anyone actually piping up that there's not one laugh in it. The ending is especially meaty and is wasted here. Given the right treatment it would have sent people out in screenings in tatters but as is you just leave in relief that it's over. 

Seriously, don't bother. Wait til Friday and and go see Lady Bird or I,Tonya instead. Once again I have martyred myself to save ye.