FILM: LITTLE FOCKERS

Elliot Hyams spends Christmas with everyone’s favourite dysfunctional family.

Ten years ago Meet the Parents proved to be the surprise sleeper hit off the year. Despite the A-list cast including Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner, and Owen Wilson the film still had a distinct Indie feel to it. However the story of a bumbling male nurse desperately trying to impress the overbearing ex C.I.A father of his fiancé managed to achieve the perfect blend of uncomfortable comedy and heart warming schmaltz that saw audiences emptying their wallets across the globe. After the success of the first film the sequel was inevitable and so Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman joined the cast to play Stiller’s wacky Jewish parents in Meet the Fockers, the film covered much the same territory as the first with Stiller returning as Gregg, still doing everything possible to gain the approval of De Niro’s stony faced Jack. Admittedly it lacked the same punch as the first film but was still enough of a financial success to warrant this year’s return to Focker family in Little Fockers.

Ten years have passed since Jack first put Gregg through the rigorous testing regime to see if he was good enough to marry his daughter Pam. Pam and Gregg are married with their own children and relations between Gregg and his father-in-law seem to be good enough. But when Jack suffers a heart attack he begins to consider who will carry on the legacy of his family, is Gregg really good enough to be the ‘God-Focker’? Soon Jack and his wife pay Gregg, Pam and the kids a visit, where Jack begins to suspect Gregg of cheating with his attractive co worker played by Jessica Alba. It’s not long before mishaps and misunderstandings have the two men at each other’s throats and the situation is only complicated further by the arrival of Kevin, Pam’s ex lover, now a millionaire with new age leanings.

Like The Office, Meet the Parents was a comedy of awkwardness. Stiller has made a career out of playing characters caught up in nightmare situations beyond their control and he once again excels at doing just that in Little Fockers. Similarly De Niro clearly enjoys being Jack, like his comedy turns in Midnight Run and Analyze This, the Focker films give De Niro the opportunity to be knowingly silly and play with his status as a dramatic icon. Both men are fantastic in the film, but the problem remains that the idea struggled to stretch to a second film, and the third proves that the well has run positively dry. The director of the last two films, Jay Roach, has been replaced by newcomer Paul Weitz in the hope of injecting new comedy blood into the series but rather than offering anything new this film appears to be made up of rehashed gags from the two previous films. Only a hilarious set piece involving an unwanted erection stands out as bringing anything new to the table. On the whole there are a few chuckles to be had here, but if it’s a proper laugh you are after you would be better off just watching the original.

Review by Elliot Hyams