mark.waltz
Condescending, patronizing, arrogant, childish, interfering, nosy, demanding. All words that should not be dominated by the F word, that being Family, a unit that the feel good writers of the movies seem to be determined to take down. The liberal attack on family values has no middle ground. Everybody in the many films made in this genre is filled with a not so positive motivation, with agendas, judgments and bugs up their butt the size of lobsters. Writers expect audiences to believe that just because they put the words on the page that it has to be true. They underestimate the intelligence of the average movie goer, trying to get them to imbibe the kool aide and come to think, Family life, bad bad bad. Single life, me me me, good good good.Yet another family get together movie, set for a big event (in this case Thanksgiving, oh gee how original), where old resentments, hidden in passive/aggressive friendliness masking hatred, jealousy and ego. The three siblings of professor Peter Bogdanovich, from two different marriages, all hateful to each other in that manner, and now involving third generation family members to lord over each other with power and a know it all attitude of superiority.Poppy (Bogdanovich) has a gorgeous home, a wretched second wife who disrespects and tries to dominate everybody, and at least Bogdanivich tries to indicate the sense of a living death within his character. Everybody has some horrid secret which when revealed just seems to give a sense of joy to the others, and that just gets old very fast. That really makes this an unappealing attempt at exploring family issues with dignity and an attempt to try to grow from mistakes. If I had a family living like this, I'd gladly call myself an orphan.
zif ofoz
The is an excellent look into what 'family' can be and so often is! Each child and parent must live behind their facade of likable pleasantness or just spill the facts and suffer the reactions.Each actor gives a stellar performance as their character and interactions with their siblings and other family members. Poppy - Bogdanovich - is the only member the viewer can clearly understand. All the others are mysterious before tossing their 'skeletons in a closet' to Poppy.From the beginning we can clearly see that Poppy is a broken and troubled man, but he keeps his misery to himself hiding behind his never ending glass of white wine and ice. While the others continue to present their facade, Poppy knows all.Then at the Thanksgiving table a sister Nina spills everything and all hell springs loose. The next day everyone resolves they are all in the same boat and this rather fractured family endures.This is a delightful flick!
buzzbruin-650-409183
A horrible family holiday season movie. The characters, all of them, are scumbags, i.e. they lie they cheat they steal. Starting with Poppy the father who's is a fired retired prof from Harvard who is an alcoholic and with no good feature. He drinks he lies he cheats on his first wife. There is nothing he won't do with any ethical standard at all. I hated him as much as his family did. HIs son has lost a huge sum gambling in poker, and lies about how he lost money to Poppy directly, Everybody cheats sexually on everybody and hate each other for different reasons, and there is not even a soupçon of humor or life in this mess. I feel badly for the first film director as his piece of crap may sink his budding career. The acting was stilted stupid and lazy with no effort by any actor in the film to resemble a real human being. The perfect ending to this dreck would have been a mass family suicide to rid these people from existing. Otherwise burn the master print and any copies lying around, in a word Ugh!
