Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Father Figures Blu-ray Movie Review

Brothers Up in Arms

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 10, 2018

You might have missed Father Figures last Christmas, because Warner Brothers dropped it into theaters with barely any promotion. By that point, the film had been kicking around the studio for more than two years, with principal photography completed in 2015, a canceled release date in 2016, and reshoots in 2017 with a key role recast and a changed ending. I wish I could report that all this tinkering produced an overlooked comic gem, but I can't. Father Figures is tonally erratic, lacking in comic chemistry between its two leads, and only fitfully amusing. Warner has released it on Blu-ray with the same minimum of fanfare it gave the theatrical release.

The central characters in Father Figures are fraternal twins Pete and Kyle Reynolds, who are played by Ed Helms and Owen Wilson in familiar performances they've given before. Pete is the responsible one, with a successful medical practice and a family (albeit one broken by divorce), while Kyle is the space cadet, who has never taken responsibility for anything in his life but did luck into an endorsement deal that has made him the more financially successful of the two brothers. Needless to say, they don't get along.

The twins' mother, Helen (Glenn Close), raised them in the belief that their father died before they were born, but on the day of her remarriage to Gene (Harry Shearer), they discover that Helen has been lying to them all these years. Their real father, she tells them, is one of the men with whom she partied during her wild youth in the Seventies. Initially she identifies their dad as football legend Terry Bradshaw, but anyone familiar with the plot of Mama Mia! knows that Bradshaw will turn out to be one of several possibilities. (Fear not. There are no bad Seventies fashions or disco hits in Father Figures, although they might have been more interesting than what's there.)

Father Figures quickly becomes a road trip movie, as the brothers go in search of their lost dad, starting with Bradshaw, who plays himself. They find him in Florida, where, among other things, they're treated to an explicit account of their mother's sexual talents by Bradshaw's neighbor and former teammate, Rod Hamilton (Ving Rhames). The search continues in upstate New York with Roland Hunt (J.K. Simmons), a former "Wall Street guy" who has now shifted into a different line of work. Hunt, in turn, directs them to a man he knew as "Sparkly P", who turns out to be a former undercover NYPD cop named Patrick O'Callaghan (Jack McGee), who has retired to Massachusetts and whose extended Irish family is predictably colorful. Eventually the trail leads to a veterinarian, Dr. Walter Tinkler (Christopher Walken, who replaced Bill Irwin in reshoots), and the discovery of the Reynolds boys' true parentage.

(Let's pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that Father Figures is a present-day film about a quest for paternity in which no one ever utters the words "DNA testing", not even the seeker who is also a practicing physician. Determinations about fatherhood are made on the basis of faded photographs, hazy recollections of dates and events, and squinting efforts to discern a resemblance between prospective fathers and sons. It's just one of many examples of the film's sloppy construction.)

As their journey continues, the Reynolds twins encounter a variety of characters intended to provide comic diversion, ranging from Sarah (Kate Aselton), with whom Pete has a fateful one-night stand after two years of celibacy since his divorce, to a hitchhiker (Katt Williams) so desperate for a ride that he agrees to let the brothers tie him up in the backseat so that they can feel safe while also being generous. The director, Lawrence Sher, was the cinematographer on The Hangover Trilogy, and the script by Justin Malen (Office Christmas Party) dutifully follows the Hangover playbook as it keeps flinging obstacles into the brothers' path, some self-created and others randomly erupting.

But the trip isn't so much about finding a missing father as it is a device to force the estranged twins into a joint undertaking, so that they can bridge the gulf between them and reconcile their differences. It's here that Father Figures really breaks down, because Helms and Wilson have zero chemistry as actors. Their characters may be written as brothers, but they don't feel like siblings, and it's hard to believe these two ever grew up together. With both actors falling back on stereotypes they've repeatedly played before—Helms the uptight nerd, and Wilson the stoner motor-mouth with boundary issues—their bickering quickly acquires a gratingly formulaic quality. When their reconciliation finally arrives (along with the truth about their lineage), it's neither moving nor convincing, because the relationship has never felt genuine.

Father Figures also suffers from tonal instability. The film wants to be a character-driven comedy about eccentric people with unlikely connections, but it too often falls back on cheap laughs about bodily functions, starting with the opening scene in which Dr. Pete is performing a rectal exam on a patient who almost seems to be enjoying the experience. Dr. Pete's proctological specialty is referenced so frequently that the joke quickly wears thin, and Father Figures has far too many similar routines, including the kid in a public restroom who likes to pee on strangers. Whatever potential the film may have had for comic invention gets slathered over with a thick layer of locker room crassness, all of which leads to a tacked-on ending where the Reynolds family problems have been solved by hugs all around and that now-familiar deus ex machina of modern comedy—an app.

Father Figures Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Father Figures was shot by veteran cinematographer John Lindley (Field of Dreams, St. Vincent). Specific information about the shooting format was unavailable, but it appears to be a 35mm film production finished on a digital intermediate. The image on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray exhibits superior sharpness and clarity, whether the scene is set in the pastel brightness of Florida or the dark recesses of the Worcester, MA lounge where Pete Reynolds meets Sarah. Blacks are solid, contrast is never overblown, colors are moderately saturated, and the palette is consistently bright and cheerful, except in one nighttime sequence where the brothers are at their lowest ebb. Consistent with its now-familiar (but still bizarre) habit of bestowing its best bitrates on its worst films, Warner has mastered Father Figures with an average bitrate of 32.57 Mbps. It may be a lousy film, but at least it looks good.

Father Figures Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Father Figures arrives with a 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in DTS-HD MA, that is effective but not especially noteworthy. As with most comedies, the surrounds are principally devoted to subtle environmental cues and to expanding the score, which is by Rob Simonsen (Going in Style). Dialogue is clearly rendered. There's one sonically memorable sequence that can't be described without spoilers, and the soundtrack rises to the occasion.

Father Figures Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2.40:1; 21:09): The ten scenes are not separately listed or selectable. None of them meaningfully expands the story, and none of them illuminates how the ending was altered in reshoots.



• Gag Reel (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:26): Mildly amusing at best.



• Introductory Trailers: The film's trailer is not included. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Game Night, 12 Strong and Blade Runner Revelations gaming experience.

Father Figures Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Father Figures is the first—and, so far, the only—feature film directed by Lawrence Sher, an experienced cinematographer who graduated from independent films like Kissing Jessica Stein to major studio fare like The Hangover Trilogy. Sher has no upcoming directing projects listed at IMDb, but if he gets another chance to direct, one of the lessons to be learned from his inaugural outing is the centrality of casting to the director's art. With a credible pair of feuding siblings at its core, Father Figures could have been a different film. The Blu-ray is technically proficient, but a streaming rental is the most this misfire is worth.