Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman in The Meyerowitz Stories.Atsushi Nishijima
From The Squid and the Whale writer-director Noah Baumbach comes another troubled-family tale based in New York. Adam Sandler is Danny Meyerowitz, a recently divorced but devoted father of a film-student daughter. His dad (an excellent Dustin Hoffman) is a sculptor, retired art professor and imperfect, thrice-married patriarch. He talks in art-critic speak, is hyper-conscious of his legacy and favours one son (played by Ben Stiller) above his other children.
The comedy is clever; the study of family dynamics is sharper still. Sandler's performance is superb, his character limping through the movie psychically as well as physically. His leg only bothers him, he explains, when he's been seated for long periods. Now it's time to stand up to address the life-long second-class treatment at the hands of an oblivious father.
Brad Wheeler