It Runs in the Family (2003)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Fred Schepisi

Writer (WGA):

Jesse Wigutow (written by)

Release Date:

25 April 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Some families can survive anything. Even each other.

Plot:

This is the story of a dysfunctional New York family, and their attempts to reconcile.

Plot Keywords:

College | Baseball | Marriage | School Dance | Double Amputee

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Nov. 15	12:00 AM	WGNAMER
Sun. Nov. 15	4:00 AM	WGNAMER

Cast

Michael Douglas	...	Alex Gromberg
Kirk Douglas	...	Mitchell Gromberg
Rory Culkin	...	Eli Gromberg
Cameron Douglas	...	Asher Gromberg
Diana Douglas	...	Evelyn Gromberg
Michelle Monaghan	...	Peg Maloney
Geoffrey Arend	...	Malik
Sarita Choudhury	...	Suzie
Irene Gorovaia	...	Abby Staley
Annie Golden	...	Deb
Mark Hammer	...	Stephen Gromberg
Audra McDonald	...	Sarah Langley
Josh Pais	...	Barney
Bernadette Peters	...	Rebecca Gromberg
Louie Torrellas	...	Jeremy

Also Known As:

A Few Good Years (USA) (working title)
Family Business (UK) (TV title)
Family Jewels (USA) (working title)
Smack in the Kisser (USA) (working title)
Smack in the Puss (USA) (original script title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for drug content, sexual material and language.

Runtime:

USA:109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Hebrew | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | Denmark:7 | Germany:6 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:7 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Kinnelon, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Buena Vista International

Trivia:

Film stars three generations of Douglas family members, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas and Cameron Douglas.

Quotes:

Mitchell Gromberg: Alex, you're a much better father than I was.
Alex Gromberg: Thank you. But you didn't exactly set the bar all that high.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Family Makes You Nuts: The Making of 'It Runs in the Family' (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Waves

The Douglas Mishpocha Make a Movie

Boy, "It Runs in the Family" has set off more than a few critics' hot buttons. This unusual ensemble production, with most of the main characters played by the Douglas clan, is ruled in reality and in this quirky pastiche of intergenerational and marital disharmony and reconciliation by the great paterfamilias, Kirk.

Having escaped death in an aviation disaster, Kirk Douglas was felled, but hardly destroyed, by a very serious stroke. The neurological event left his speech but not other faculties impaired. He moves pretty well for his age. Damn well! Speech therapy has only taken him so far - forget the sharp voice of the star of roaring Westerns or a Viking saga. But the acting ability, the skill in projecting emotion, the cunning character who draws the viewer into a picture - Kirk Douglas is STILL Kirk Douglas.

The story is pedestrian, soap operish, New York, Jewish culture-inflected (Kirk Douglas rediscovered his Jewish roots not that long ago, celebrated an aged man's well-publicized Bar Mitzvah and wrote a book about his renewed commitment to Judaism). His son, Michael, not exactly unknown to the screen, is his son in "It Runs in the Family" and no amount of acting need substitute for the palpably real love between the characters. Douglas pere is the elder lawyer and his son is a partner in his firm, a man yearning for public service and elective office.

A few other Douglas clan members act and Joel Douglas co-produced the film. Catherine Zeta-Jones, occupied with pregnancy or other projects or litigation in London over wedding photos, didn't make the scene but Bernadette Peters is well cast as Michael's spouse. She's a therapist dealing with the problems that often arise in a two-decade-old marriage. Rory Culkin strongly plays Eli, an eleven-year-old whose walking-on-eggs approach to teenagehood is both sensitively portrayed and genuinely affecting.

The misadventures of the clan are really events that hit many families but few are so unlucky as to endure this much tsouris. But the ending...well, see it.

Some folks seem to have a real problem viewing Kirk Douglas act WITH and THROUGH his controlled but ineradicable disability. I've heard people say he has no business making films anymore (one critic wrote that). What are these people really saying? That the sight of a powerful man whose waves of vitality are awesome but who is in the sunset of his life ought not to parade genuine incapacity on the screen? Does it scare some that his slurred speech is the only aspect of his screen persona that isn't acted? I wonder.

See the film not because it's a great story - we've seen these melodramatic episodes many times over - but for the pleasure of watching people connected in real life explore myriad challenges with passion, humor, empathy and caring.

7/10.