'About My Father' movie review: A fairly entertaining feature-length stand-up routine

About My Father still

Film: About my father (Lionsgate)
Cast: Sebastian Maniscalco, Robert De Niro, Leslie Bibb, Anders Holm, David Rasche, Brett Dier and Kim Cattrall
Director: Laura Terruso
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 90 mins

'About My Father', with a screenplay by star Sebastian Maniscalco and Austen Earl, doesn't feel much like a feature comedy. It is written like a lengthy stand-up comedy routine, with just the right pauses after every comedy set. Thankfully it's not a monologue. There are other interesting players and acts here. This is a sort of revised, skimmed version of "Meet The Parents," but without the outlandish attempts at comedy and wildly inappropriate behavioral acts that were its backbone. 'About My Father' is funnier and more easily digestible because the writing sticks to the fairly believable even if it feels hopelessly contrived and overplayed in most places.

The plot is loosely based (supposedly) on Maniscalco's actual courtship of his wife Lana Gomez. The narrative here has Chicago hotelier Sebastian Maniscalco using a 4th of July celebration invite to the ritzy Virginia summer home of Bill and Tigger Collins (David Rasche and Kim Cattrall), as the perfect setting to propose to his girlfriend Ellie (Leslie Bibb). But his widowed father Salvatore (Robert De Niro), a flamboyant Sicilian hairdresser, hasn't spent a 4th of July holiday weekend without him and is refusing to give him the heirloom ring meant for his intended until he himself has vetted the parents. So obviously, Sebastian has no choice but to invite him along. That reasoning is a bit silly because Maniscalco doesn't exactly live with his father, and Salvo, the self-made man motivated by fear of losing his son to Ellie, also doesn't ring true because Seb and Ellie have been a couple for some time now.

Overstated set-ups attempting to score laughs are par for the course here. Along the way, you are treated to slapstick bordering on mawkish sentiment in an effort to score emotional hits. There are funny moments here but it's not all smooth flowing or continuous. The slapstick isn't overly successful and the schmaltz feels rather hokey. Maniscalco, in his first lead role, appears to be trying too hard while De Niro, despite his role being a stereotype, manages to score with a crusty but lovable turn.

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