Synopsis
A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.
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Cast
- Jack LemmonJake Tremont
- Ted DansonJohn Tremont
- Ethan HawkeBilly
- Kevin SpaceyMario
- Olympia DukakisBette Tremont
- Kathy BakerAnnie
- Zakes MokaeDr. Chad
- J.T. WalshDr. Santana
- Peter Michael GoetzDr. Ethridge
- John ApicellaDr. Delibro
Recommendations
- 75
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A well-made, strong three-generation saga that deals with a number of interesting - and sometimes uncomfortable - topics. [27 Oct 1989, p.3F] - 63
Miami Herald
The director spends nearly two hours groping for a message, but never finds it, mostly because his conflicts rise and fall in 30-minute segments -- like a Family Ties episode. [27 Oct 1989, p.G5] - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
Dad is a case of a movie with too much enthusiasm for its own good. If the filmmakers had only been willing to dial down a little, they would have had the materials for an emotionally moving story, instead of one that generates incredulity. - 50
Washington Post
Nothing in Dad moves below the surface. When the inevitable tragedies come, they take their expected forms. And because we have at least some susceptibility and human feeling, we give the expected response. What we are responding to, though, is not so much the film as the issues it raises. - 40
Los Angeles Times
The book too is cluttered and diffuse, but it still has nice, uncompromisingly rough edges to it that this film adaptation has planed away. It was an honest, painful record; it has been nudged into family-style uplift. - 40
The New York Times
Instead of moving the audience, Mr. Goldberg achieves the kind of effect that Jack Benny got when he played his violin. The flesh crawls. - 40
Variety
There’s certainly much that’s funny, warm and endearing about Dad, which, based on William Wharton’s novel, deals with the familiar theme of a grown child resolving his sense of duty toward an ageing parent. Unfortunately, prolonged tilling of that emotional terrain and seemingly endless verbalization of feelings diminish most of what’s good about the film. - 40
Tampa Bay Times
Goldberg has honorable intentions. But like Tammy Faye's make-up, it's impossible to see beneath his movie's overwrought facade. [27 Oct 1989, p.7]
