Synopsis
The story of the Buckman family and friends, attempting to bring up their children. They suffer/enjoy all the events that occur: estranged relatives, the 'black sheep' of the family, the eccentrics, the skeletons in the closet, and the rebellious teenagers.
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Cast
- Steve MartinGil Buckman
- Mary SteenburgenKaren Buckman
- Dianne WiestHelen Buckman Lampkin Bowman
- Jason RobardsFrank Buckman
- Rick MoranisNathan Huffner
- Tom HulceLarry Buckman
- Martha PlimptonJulie Buckman-Lampkin Higgins
- Keanu ReevesTod Higgins
- Harley Jane KozakSusan Buckman
- Joaquin PhoenixGarry Buckman-Lampkin
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Ron Howard's Parenthood is a delicate balancing act between comedy and truth, a movie that contains a lot of laughter and yet is more concerned with character than punch lines. - 90
Los Angeles Times
Ron Howard reaches real maturity here, as he pulls together the script's tendency to skitter between sociology and sitcom, making it into one perceptive, delicious whole. [2 Aug 1989, p.1] - 88
Rolling Stone
Parenthood, heartfelt and howlingly comic, also comes spiced with risk and mischief. Just when you fear the movie might be swept away on a tidal wave of wholesomeness, a line, a scene or a performance poke through to restore messy, perverse reality. - 88
Boston Globe
Funny, gritty, filled with surprising stabs of feeling, Parenthood is a stretch for Ron Howard, its director. This new adult comedy has the generosity of "Cocoon" and "Splash," but it takes Howard into deeper, darker, messier territory. [2 Aug 1989, p.57] - 88
Chicago Tribune
Ron Howard's first-rate dramatic comedy Parenthood, with Steve Martin headlining a first-rate cast in a most clever script about the joy and pain of being both a parent and a child. [4 Aug 1989, p.A] - 80
The New York Times
Ron Howard's bittersweet adult comedy, Parenthood, lays out an entire catalogue of psychological stresses afflicting family life in white middle-class America, then asks if the rewards of being a parent are worth all the agony. - 80
Washington Post
Perhaps Parenthood works so well because Howard and Co. dabble in the dark side of family happiness and the lighter side of family darkness. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
The new film Parenthood is a challenging, funny, affecting and mostly rewarding effort - like parenthood itself. It makes good use of a large ensemble cast led by Steve Martin as a man striving to be a good dad. [2 Aug 1989, p.E1]
