PARENTHOOD. Directed by Ron Howard; written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel; produced by Brian Grazer for Universal. Starring Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen. Rated PG-13.
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Parenthood is an ensemble picture about the most fundamental ensemble of them all—the family. It explores the title subject thoroughly, from all angles, and sympathetically.
There are some funny scenes, although not as many as you might expect from a Steve Martin movie. But given the seriousness of this family's problems, it's surprising that there's any at all.
Martin and Steenburgen play the central couple, and, in spite having a son who's in therapy, they have fewer problems than most of their kin. Dianne Wiest is a single parent sister coping with one defiant and one uncommunicative teenager. Rick Moranis is an in-law with a three-year-old to whom he reads Kafka. Tom Hulce is a black sheep brother who stays around for a while, connives to "borrow" a lot of money, and who leaves an unwanted child for his parents to care for.
The movie does an admirable job of keeping such a diverse crew of stories and characters from tripping over each other. A few of the people are little more than one-dimensional caricatures. Moranis' character, in particular, is not very well drawn. But then, he's not really in the same class, acting-wise, as Hulce, Jason Robards (as the patriarch of this motley clan), Wiest and some of the others.
Most of the cast manages to create believable portraits of realistic people, even though none of them have a lot of on-screen time to do it.
Parenthood's matter-of-fact acceptance of pre-marital sex, and its frank discussions of this and other "adult" problems might offend some conservative movie-goers. And in spite of its upbeat ending, its overall effect might be somewhat depressing, especially for someone considering becoming a parent.
But most of the performances are first-rate. And it looks like director Howard, who's never made a bad movie, and has only rarely been unsuccessful at the box office, has another winner here for his resume.
September 20, 1989