Here we go back to perhaps the classic setup of the modern drama - the odd family.
Pacino plays playwright Travalian who made the unfortunate choice of marrying a woman who is addicted to new relationships. She leaves him and drops off four of her children with him while she goes off to search for new adventures.
The children do a good job of acting, but the directing and writing are pure cheese. They try their best to make them cute and they try too hard to make the dialogue sound as if the children are precocious and talk to their temporary father as peers. I can see why critics at the time butchered it for that. But again, the kids are solid actors who deliver their lines well and we get a few laughs out of them.
Pacino's performance is very generic, I would say uninspiring. Definitely none of the hysterial ranting, grandiloquent speeches, or subtle threatening stares he would ultimately be known for in this movie. That might have been on purpose, though. This is a writer who women keep leaving. That is to say, he's probably a more mild-mannered guy and not the swashbuckling action hero type. But still. I would have pegged Al Pacino as a competent, but not remarkable, actor had I only seen him in this work.
Travalian is also a playwright and he's trying to get a new play set up, but that takes a back seat to the family drama. It's almost only included as an afterthought, probably because this is a biographical film and they have to include a lot of such details about the writer's life. In this part expect to see a lot of walking cliches: the token gay, the overly constantly anxious manager, the pushy producers, etc. It's dumb.
But it very much (wisely) takes a back seat to the central drama. This is abouy a guy who keeps getting involved with free-spirited women who don't have any intention of being tied down to a man and certainly not to children. Seems like Travalian has a bad habit or bad luck, because he's the one who ends up having to take care of the kids.
That part is fresh.
The main song sounds good melodically, but the lyrics are strikingly funny. Razzie for worst song well-deserved.
Honourable Mentions: Down to You (2000). Thematically similar to this movie. It's about a girl who doesn't want to get locked into a serious relationship too early in life and even insults the male lead as an old man because he doesn't seem to mind that.
Pacino plays playwright Travalian who made the unfortunate choice of marrying a woman who is addicted to new relationships. She leaves him and drops off four of her children with him while she goes off to search for new adventures.
The children do a good job of acting, but the directing and writing are pure cheese. They try their best to make them cute and they try too hard to make the dialogue sound as if the children are precocious and talk to their temporary father as peers. I can see why critics at the time butchered it for that. But again, the kids are solid actors who deliver their lines well and we get a few laughs out of them.
Pacino's performance is very generic, I would say uninspiring. Definitely none of the hysterial ranting, grandiloquent speeches, or subtle threatening stares he would ultimately be known for in this movie. That might have been on purpose, though. This is a writer who women keep leaving. That is to say, he's probably a more mild-mannered guy and not the swashbuckling action hero type. But still. I would have pegged Al Pacino as a competent, but not remarkable, actor had I only seen him in this work.
Travalian is also a playwright and he's trying to get a new play set up, but that takes a back seat to the family drama. It's almost only included as an afterthought, probably because this is a biographical film and they have to include a lot of such details about the writer's life. In this part expect to see a lot of walking cliches: the token gay, the overly constantly anxious manager, the pushy producers, etc. It's dumb.
But it very much (wisely) takes a back seat to the central drama. This is abouy a guy who keeps getting involved with free-spirited women who don't have any intention of being tied down to a man and certainly not to children. Seems like Travalian has a bad habit or bad luck, because he's the one who ends up having to take care of the kids.
That part is fresh.
The main song sounds good melodically, but the lyrics are strikingly funny. Razzie for worst song well-deserved.
Honourable Mentions: Down to You (2000). Thematically similar to this movie. It's about a girl who doesn't want to get locked into a serious relationship too early in life and even insults the male lead as an old man because he doesn't seem to mind that.