Father Figures | Film Review

Hey Guys x

I don't remember this film getting a theatrical release, but I do remember seeing the trailer for it at least twice while watching other films at the cinema, so it was always in my head as one that I definitely wanted to see.

It's about twin brothers who discover that their father (who they thought had died when they were young) actually wasn't their father at all. With some information from their mother, they set out to discover who their real father is, travelling far and wide to find him. However, on their travels they learn more about their mother, and each other, than either of them expected.

I really wanted to like this. It had the recipe for something great.

It had Owen Wilson and Ed Helms (two hilarious and amazing actors) as the leads, it was a travel movie (at points a road trip movie) and from the trailer, it looked hilarious.

But I didn't like it, for a lot of reasons.

For one, it was marketed like a comedy. This is harsh but, a comedy has to be funny. This wasn't. Sure, there were moments that got a tentative chuckle, usually moments from the trailer, but overall it wasn't a funny film. It actually suffered from the trailer, as that's where they included all of the best jokes.

In addition to this, sometimes in a dramatic movie, putting in a moment of comedy pulls you out of the moment and kind of ruins it for you. This was the other way around. I was trying to find the film funny, but there were a lot of dramatic moments that pulled me out of the comedy. In fact, there were a lot of times when I felt genuinely sorry for the twins. If you think about it, it's heartbreaking to not know who your father is.

And this brings me on to the mother. I won't spoil the end of the movie, but we can't ignore the fact that a lot of what happens is her fault. The whole film could have been solved in two seconds if she had told them the truth from the beginning. And I mean, I know that this would mean that there'd be no film, but it would have made a lot more sense.

I also found that, because of the amount of men that the two went through in order to find their father, by the end, I really didn't care who their father was. It could have been any of those men and the film wouldn't have changed for me in the slightest. Even thinking about it now, I don't care that their father could have been any one of those men.

Another thing that annoyed me about the film was the ending. It left me with questions rather than answers, and felt like it was opening up a whole new can of worms that the film didn't have time to discuss. For a start, I would have been a hell of a lot more pissed off at my mum than they were!

So overall, I can't recommend this movie. But film is subjective, so you may watch it and think that it's the best thing you've ever seen. I personally couldn't warm to it.

Lou