When you’ve seen as many movies as I have you get to recognize trends and patterns that occur within films. Often times these trends and similarities turn into cliffhanger endings which become trilogies or movie series. When it takes two, three or even four sequels to end a series, in my opinion, the story line and its characters become redundant and more often than not these sequels flop when they hit the box office. But on the rare occasion the opposite happens, directors like Paul Weitz get to walk away with their heads held high.
We first met the Byrnes and Focker families in 2000 when they stormed the box office charts, reeling in $28.6 million for their premier weekend of Meet the Parents; not bad for another family comedy that attempted to add flare to the industry by recruiting the collective talent of Blythe Danner, Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller and Teri Polo. The sequel, Meet the Fockers, introduced audiences to the more liberal and hippy-like Focker family. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) brings the Byrnes family to meet his parents, played by Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Steisand.
Six years after its predecessor, the third entry in the blockbuster trilogy, Little Fockers, hit theaters on December 22, earning a whopping $26.3 million opening weekend and claiming the number one spot for its first two weeks of release. Recruiting the assistance of the adorable Colin Baiocchi and Daisy Tahan, who play little Henry and Samantha Focker, Weitz stepped up his game and brought this comedic trilogy to a close.
Jack Byrnes, who has a minor heart attack and defibrillates himself with some stray wires, is looking for a new “head of the family” to make sure that the Byrnes’ blood stays strong when his time comes. Robert De Niro, playing his typical mafia godfather-esque role, appoints Greg for the position, but not without his typical prying and snooping. After a series of tongue and cheek scenes and the imagined image of De Niro naked, Weitz plays on the responsibilities that come with the new grandfather role that Jack is introduced to.
A character, though, that I felt had no business being in a family-friendly comedy was Kevin Rawley, played by Owen Wilson. His position as “guy with a crush on his best friend’s girl” is taken to new extremes in Little Fockers. Wilson’s role and that of Jessica Alba (who plays Andi Garcia, the medical representative) were a waste of screen time. The point of the film was to introduce Samantha and Henry, not to reinvent the term sleazy.
Little Fockers does an excellent job, however, of showing audiences the fascinating interactions between newly bonded families. Even when the heads of their families clash, the Fockers and Byrnes come together for the sake of the children. It is a heartwarming film wrapped in a series of effective comedic scenarios that leave the viewer wondering if the families’ differences will ever be resolved. In a world of uninspired comedies, Fockers maintains its momentum by focusing on characters that you actually care about, even after the laughter has subsided.
