BEFORE: It feels like once again, Turner Classic Movies and I are on the same wavelength. They've been running a bunch of Robert De Niro films this week, like "Mean Streets" and "True Confessions", and I started a De Niro chain yesterday - and he carries over from "Hands of Stone" to this one. I'm going to add the ONE film TCM is running that I haven't seen, but it's super-long - so I'll save it for the weekend.
Some internal debate about what order to put these De Niro films in - the last one is set, because it kicks off the next theme week, but what about the others? I think I'm going to follow up on the plot point from "Hands of Stone", where Ray Arcel reunited with his adult foster daughter, and continue with that theme of fathers re-connecting with children today. I also debated saving this one for Father's Day, but that's so far off, who knows if I can get the linking to get this one to land there.
Keeping this one here in January, plus adding in another De Niro film, now means I'll have to double-up TWICE next week to finish January on time, but I think I can do it. Those Batman & Superman animated films are short, I can easily watch some double-features.
THE PLOT: A widower who realizes his only connection to his family was through his wife sets off on an impromptu road trip to reunite with each of his grown children.
AFTER: I had several films last year about absent fathers and questionable mothers - I'm still parsing through all of them and I need to finish the 2019 breakdown post - maybe this weekend. But this one sort of fits right in with those, as an older man with four children realizes that maybe he doesn't even really KNOW them very well, so he sets out on the road (buses and trains only, due to a medical condition) to drop in on them, after all four of them bail on a family get-together. OK, three of them cancel, the fourth never responded, that's essentially the same thing, but it could be important later.
First he takes a train down from Elmira, NY to visit his artist son in NYC - ($87 for train fare? Eh, I checked the map, that could be about right. Did he take the Acela or a local?) His son didn't seem to be home, so he spent a night out on the stoop, then left a note and moved on. Put a pin in that situation, we'll come back to it later... It's a long bus ride to Chicago to see his daughter, who makes some frantic phone calls after he arrives (in her defense, what parent doesn't call first?) so it's possible that her situation may have changed since she last saw her father. After that, the kids are communicating with each other by phone, so his other children do get a "heads up" that Dad's on the way.
The tie-in with the fact that Goode Sr. worked for 40-50 years in the telecommunications industry seemed a bit hokey, though. I'm not sure someone who basically coated wires for his whole career would take such personal pride in his work, but what do I know? It's a job that somebody had to do, so why not be proud about it? You just really never hear anybody talk about a job like that, though. It's just not up there with being a dolphin trainer or a Vegas dancer or even an advertising executive.
It's tough to say exactly why all of his children need to hide things from him in this situation, or tell half-truths about where they are in life. Maybe he's just not the kind of guy that you can confide in, as he says, he's not a great listener, just a good talker. One of those personal things that his kids didn't tell him is SO BIG though, I just don't see how anyone could keep that from their father. Maybe if the father was abusive or non-likable in some way, but that just doesn't seem to be the case here - he seems like a reasonable guy, just a little hard to talk to.
Sentimentally, this one got me at the end - maybe because it's still pretty close to holiday time, and that's a few days I spend every year with my parents. And they're fine, for about three days, then I sort of have to leave them be because they get on my nerves. My mother's starting to forget things, like I had to remind her about some of the steps in making the holiday meal - she's aware of the problem, to some degree, but it leads to questions about how many more years they'll be around, or cognizant enough to celebrate the holidays. They could make the transition to assisted living at some point, they've put aside money for that, it just becomes a topic for debate about when to pull that trigger. Not a fun or easy topic, though.
John Lennon had a song about "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" (it's all right, it's all right). By the same token, whether you're young or old, single, married, divorced or widowed, whatever thing gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps you motivated, it's all right, it's all right. As long as it's legal, of course, and doesn't do harm to you or others.
Also starring Drew Barrymore (last seen in "Lucky You") Kate Beckinsale (last seen in "Laurel Canyon"), Sam Rockwell (last seen in "Vice"), Austin Lysy, Katherine Moennig (last seen in "The Shipping News"), Melissa Leo (last seen in "The Most Hated Woman in America"), Lucian Maisel, Damian Young (last seen in "Ocean's Eight"), James Frain (last seen in "The Count of Monte Cristo"), Sonja Stuart, Mackenzie Milone, Lily Mo Sheen, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick (last seen in "Before Midnight"), Chandler Frantz (last seen in "Moonrise Kingdom"), James Murtaugh (last seen in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days"), Ben Schwartz (last seen in "Night School"), Scott Cohen (last seen in "The Week Of").
RATING: 5 out of 10 percussion instruments
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