Dad (1989)

Gary Goldberg's Dad only got Oscar recognition with a nomination for makeup. Surely deserved in the way Jack Lemmon was transformed into a henpecked old codger. But surely Lemmon and Ted Danson playing his son merited some Oscar consideration in 1989. So does Olympia Dukakis playing the mother.Dad is a wonderful study of the issues in being a senior citizen and now that I am one can appreciate more now than in 1989 when it first came out. From the first you see that it's Dukakis wearing the pants in the family as they go grocery shopping. But when Olympia has a heart attack in the supermarket, Lemmon is kind of left to his own devices.The children, Kathy Baker and Kevin Spacey, help to some degree. But it's there third brother who works for an investment firm who really pitches in. Ted Danson is a kind of Gordon Gekko of the West Coast, but as he pitches in and helps the two really connect and reestablish a relationship. I did love the scene where Lemmon just sits in on a board meeting comprehending more than Danson realizes about what he does for a living.Ever since Lemmon retired from Lockheed years it's Dukakis who has become the dominant one. No longer earning and kind of under foot he becomes just an appendage. She treats him like a child.Soon enough the roles are reversed. She comes home and he's diagnosed with cancer. The family then goes into crisis mode.Dad has a nice constructed story with very well developed characters with the exception of Kevin Spacey who is given little to do with his role. Ethan Hawke is also in the film as Danson's son who has always had a great relationship with his grandfather. Jack Lemmon was 66 when he made the film. But with makeup he looks more 86 and really makes you believe it in his performance. A whole lot like his buddy Walter Matthau when he starred in Kotch.Dad is a wonderful film for the family about a family named Tremont.

not nice, not inspired, not beautiful or a good role for Jack Lemmon. but an useful film. useful for remind old, elementary fashion things about family links. useful for remind the role of miracles and the essence of freedom. useful for the viewer who rediscover memories about parents. useful and profound touching. sure, it is a good occasion for remind experiences from past for the survivors of them. for many - only a sentimental drama with few drops of comedy. sure, it is far to be a masterpiece. but important is its small status to remind the essence of family life not only as fruit of Christmas or another significant event but as root of everyday existence. short, three generations of good actors - few extraordinaries and a very useful story.

Jack Lemmon, aged with makeup and a bald cap, plays the cantankerous title character, who needs looking after once his wife suffers a heart attack. Butter-colored family portrait, the kind in which impending death brings the principals closer together. Producer-director Gary David Goldberg also adapted his screenplay from the novel by William Wharton; he obviously had faith in this material, though it has been cast for awards season acknowledgment. There's not a convincing moment anywhere, and Lemmon is never so off-putting as when he is straining for a sentimental affect. The whole thing goes over the top near the finish, with Ted Danson running out of a hospital with frail Dad in his arms. When Hollywood goes the shameless route, look out: gullible viewers become roadkill. *1/2 from ****

I admit. I initially only wanted to watch Dad to see a younger Ethan Hawke. Fifteen minutes into the film, I was bawling my eyes out. This is unusual for me, as I'm not exactly the weepy type and I only usually cry in tearjerkers featuring Old Yeller, Fluke and Free Willy (somehow, animals emote more convincingly).I thought Dad would be a boring, heartwarming drama, but I pleasantly discovered that it had its share of laughs. This movie is excellently cast and well written. It jars the senses long after you've seen it because it forces you to face things you'd rather not deal with, ever, but will inevitably have to: losing someone you love.The film opens with a young Jack Lemmon at sunrise, starting work at his ranch with his beautiful, supportive wife and kids. Then, a sequence to establish his present character: an old frail man being taken care of by his overbearing wife (convincingly played by Olympia Dukakis), from dressing him up, putting toothpaste on his toothbrush, to buttering his toast. He accompanies his wife, who drives them both to the grocery, where she gets a heart attack. He helplessly looks on.While she is temporarily hospitalized, the children worry about their father. The son (Ted Danson) is a successful corporate type, who quickly flies in to see to it that everything's okay. He is met by his brother-in-law (Kevin Spacey), and his sister (Kathy Baker).The absentee son is shocked to see how much his father has deteriorated, and so spends more time with him out of guilt. He doesn't intend to stay long as he has business to attend to, and so he makes sure that his father can be independent and take care of himself.Pretty soon, Dukakis is back and is surprised to see her husband up and about. All is well till it's his turn to suddenly get hospitalized. The doctor suspects cancer. Soon, he's in a coma, and the son does everything he can to care for his father. Somewhere in the middle of this, his own son (Ethan Hawke), comes in. He is estranged from his father but is apparently very close to his grandfather.After what seems like ages, and now in the hands of a more compassionate, competent doctor, the old man wakes up. He celebrates his new lease on life by being more carefree, lively and spontaneous. He has been diagnosed to be a bit schizophrenic, with the film's opening sequence revealing the dream life he's been living in his head to cope with his problems. His family is astonished, but humors him, except for his wife, who openly shows her displeasure at his apparent craziness.But later on, it is his new zest for life that infects everyone and brings the family together. It helps the old couple open their world to new things and new people at that stage in their life. In the end, cancer does overcome his body, but not his spirit and of those around him.I like how the movie finishes on a positive yet realistic note, without milking the situation with an embarrassing display of melodrama.It's a scary thing to watch someone you've always known as strong slowly wither before you. It must have been excruciating for the son to watch his own father not be able to do the things that he used to do, not even dress himself up. This was also painfully illustrated in one scene where the son, angry at the poor treatment his father endured from the first doctor, carries his dad out of the hospital. The father's body appeared so weak and frail in his son's arms. This role reversal a la Pieta comes as quite a shocker, as it disturbs the equilibrium an awful lot.As the eldest child, I've had the good fortune to enjoy my parents at their prime. I grew up content in the belief that I always had my strong, funny, patient father and my always organized and in-control mother to take care of anything, big or small. And then I aged in years, but still terribly spoiled and immature, while my folks seem to have silently been plateauing.While my folks have not been as terribly sick as in the movie, the threat of it happening is always there. Dad has been a wake-up call for me to reevaluate what matters most in life and to reallocate my time to doing the things that are truly of value.Everyone can relate to this film because everyone has parents, or someone they depend on or are close to. There is no big villain to hate or escape from in this film; no unrealistic and complicated plot twists, telenovela-style. Nothing, that is, except the bigger danger of apathy, the silent killer in each of our relationships. Therein lies the true conflict, and the earlier we choose to recognize it and act on it, the better our relationships can be.Now who would've known such knowledge could stem from a desire to see Ethan Hawke?