ABOUT MY FATHER - Mark Reviews Movies

About My Father, Lionsgate

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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 25, 2023

It's almost inevitable at this point that a stand-up comedian with any level of fame will try to break into the movies or television. About My Father presents that opportunity for comic Sebastian Maniscalco, who co-wrote the screenplay for this very sitcom-like movie and stars as a version of himself. As is so often the case with such projects, the comedian-turned-actor also, then, follows the comfortable advice to write and, in this case, play what you know.

That's understandable, but the approach feels especially limiting in this circumstance. For one thing, Maniscalco more or less gives us a series of scenes that feel as if they're mere dramatizations of his stage bits. The feeling arrives right from the start, with Maniscalco's character Sebastian offering a quick, humorous take on the history of Italy, his family's origins in Sicily, his father's decision to immigrate to the United States, and his own upbringing in the Chicago area to a man with stringent set of opinions about the right way to live.

It's a lot and, also, not very much, since most of it can be whittled down to the fact that Sebastian and his father Salvo (Robert De Niro) have distinct ideas about things but generally get along because, well, they're father and son. Beyond that, the story here doesn't exactly revolve around their relationship, since it's primarily about Sebastian meeting the parents of his girlfriend, in a familiar, relatable scenario that really gets one thinking that Maniscalco has approached his attempted breakthrough project with as much comfort as possible.

Despite setting up so much in his favor, Maniscalco still seems out of place in this, ostensibly his, movie. He's not bad in this role, because it would take a level of fundamental incompetence and a complete lack of any presence to fail at playing oneself in a comedy as basic as this one. The movie's mere existence suggests that the man has found some degree of success as a stand-up, additionally suggesting that he's competent and charming enough to hold his own on stage.

Maniscalco is broadly amusing here, to be sure. It's strange, though, that he, along with co-screenwriter Austen Earl, has essentially made himself the third or fourth funniest character in this story, while also making himself perhaps the least interesting character in it. As a screenwriter, Maniscalco has handed his perspective and attitude as a comedian over to every character surrounding his own. That pretty much leaves his character with little to do than just go along with all the wacky things going on around him.

Cutting right to the point after the introductory monologue/slideshow, the plot finds Sebastian, a manager at a boutique hotel, preparing to propose to his girlfriend Ellie (Leslie Bibb), an artist. There are three complications. First, Ellie wants a somewhat embarrassing display when he does propose. Second, she comes from a wealthy family, and Sebastian isn't certain if he'll fit in with them. Third, he has to convince his father to give him a family heirloom ring for the proposal, and Salvo, a hair stylist and recent widower, also isn't convinced that his son will or should fit in with such a well-to-do crowd.

Anyway, all of those potential problems are basically solved when Ellie's parents, Bill (David Rasche) and Tigger (Kim Cattrall), invite their daughter and Sebastian to a long holiday weekend at the family's summer home at an exclusive country club. Ellie convinces Sebastian to bring along Salvo, and after being conflicted about the idea, Sebastian decides this is the perfect opportunity for his father to accept the family into which he'd be marrying.

All of this, of course, is mostly an excuse for further conflict, such as Salvo trying to be frugal among people for whom money is no object, and complications, such as everything that happens in basically every other scene of the movie. Most of them are resolved with minimal or no effort, like when Salvo gives Tigger a haircut that she really doesn't appreciate, and the rest are forgotten as soon as they happen, because they're just jokes (Sebastian accidentally revealing his genitals during a mishap with a water-powered-jet-board-thing) or because resolving them in any real way would take too much time and effort (Sebastian and Ellie's relationship almost collapsing because he keeps something from her).

It's all very basic, very formulaic stuff, as are a pair of wacky relatives in Ellie's brothers, Lucky (Anders Holm) and Doug (Brett Dier). It is also inoffensive, in spite and because of how predictable the whole schematic is, and occasionally finds some warmth, as well as some truth, in the relationship between Sebastian and Salvo. De Niro could probably sleepwalk through this role, as a man who keeps his emotions in check, but he doesn't. Meanwhile, Maniscalco only seems truly invested in the material and his performance in those scenes with Salvo, and their back-and-forth is easy and, ultimately, somewhat touching.

For the most part, though, About My Father is a generic comedy with only vague hints of any specific identity to call its own. That it's not much of a showcase for its writer/star is of secondary importance.

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