Meet the Parents

After making a good career and winning artistic accolades by playing dangerously obsessed psychos in action thrillers, Robert DeNiro has chosen, somewhat surprisingly, to try his hand at playing dangerously obsessed psychos in genial comedies. Following last year's bracingly hilarious study of a mobster with psychological problems, "Analyze This," DeNiro takes on comedy once again in "Meet the Parents." Here, he plays a devoted husband and father who is dangerously obsessed with the various perceived deficiencies of his daughter's boyfriends. Ever-reliable Ben Stiller, as his non-dangerously-obsessed-pyscho opposite number, is the latest suitor to undergo his scrutiny. While the basic concept may seem a little tired, these two actors animate it to such a degree that you'll never realize you've seen the plot a million times before.

Fans of the superlative British comic novelist P.G. Wodehouse will notice that the plot resembles a classic Wodehousian farce, something the master himself might have penned were he alive and writing screenplays. [I should have indicated somewhere in this sentence that I did not mean the language here achieves Wodehousian heights of invention, but whatever.] Stiller, as Gaylord "Greg" Focker (the comic possibilities of this name do not go unexplored), just flat-out loves the radiant Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), who flat-out loves him in return. Wedding bells will ring as soon as Focker manages to impress Pam's father Jack enough to win permission to ask her hand. Unfortunately, Focker isn't quite Jack's kind of guy, and Jack himself is a little different from the man Focker thinks he is.

We see clearly where the film is going during one early interaction between the two leads. DeNiro, bluff but not uningratiating, had been talking up the virtues of his cat Jinx, after which Polo had informed him that Stiller "hates cats." Stiller, sensing imminent disaster, gave a sputtering, awkward denial, the substance of which is that he doesn't not like cats but prefers dogs.

The two are now in a car, going to pick up supplies at the drugstore. Stiller, trying to get permission to woo while he hasn't done too much damage to his chances, brings up the subject in a roundabout, halting manner; he never actually says the word "marriage." Stiller is our modern master of squirming uncomfortably while trying to do something about which he should not be ashamed, and he does a magnificent job here. DeNiro, however, cuts him off.

"So Greg, why don't you like cats?" he asks.

Stiller sputters.

DeNiro sets the jaw that has launched a thousand expletives. Finally he spits his line, with impeccable timing:

"I just think it's interesting that you prefer the emotionally immature animal."

DeNiro explains, his words tearing Stiller's cringing silence, and the audience laughs at both of them.

From interactions like these, which so carefully and skillfully capture the hilarious agony of conversation with someone whose approval you're desperate to obtain, the film gradually adds further conversational pitfalls and comic mayhem until the laughter is almost too much to take. In classic Wodehousian fashion, Stiller decides that the proper way to explain away his quirks and the epic bad luck he suffers is to tell little white lies; when these deceptions are uncovered, he decides to simply pile on the deceptions. DeNiro, of course, is predisposed to find fault with his prospective son-in-law, and interprets everything he does as evidence that he isn't good enough for Polo. Stiller grows ever-more frantic in a search for approval which is not forthcoming, and DeNiro grows ever-more dangerously obsessed with proving that Stiller is not suitable husband material. Complications, as they are wont to do, ensue.

Highlights include Stiller, playing a Jewish man, delivering a rambling, nonsensical grace that ends with him slipping into the words of "Day By Day"; DeNiro's immortal admonition after Stiller finds out DeNiro is ex-CIA, "If you can keep your mouth shut for the rest of your life, I may not have to kill you"; Owen Wilson, as Polo's handsome, rich, woodworking, impossibly sincere ex-fiancé; and the biggest slapstick scene in the movie, featuring Stiller chasing the escaped Jinx across a roof with unfortunate, highly destructive consequences. The jokes build on each other, Stiller and DeNiro outdo themselves, the turnabout-is-fair-play climax feels right, and sure-handed director Jay Roach even provides a winning coda.

As an added bonus, we get all this without having to endure gratuitous vulgarity; if you can handle a little foul language, you'll enjoy this film without qualms. Anyone with a date, a distaste for the endless stream of amoral comedies that's come down the pike recently, or a damn sense of humor should get down to the theater and "Meet the Parents."

The dialogue quoted here isn't entirely accurate, but it's accurate in spirit, and I ain't Film Comment. I always saw and still see my mission as informing you enough to let you know whether you want to see the movie or not.

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