Parenthood

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Dom Robinson reviews

ParenthoodIt could happen to you.
Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

    Cover

  • Cat.no: UDR 90041
  • Cert: 15
  • Running time: 118 minutes
  • Year: 1989
  • Pressing: 1999
  • Region(s): 2, PAL
  • Chapters: 16 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Surround, Mono
  • Languages: 8 languages available
  • Subtitles: 5 languages available
  • Fullscreen: 4:3
  • 16:9-Enhanced: No
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: £19.99
  • Extras : Scene index, Biographies, Filmographies, Production Notes

    Director:

      Ron Howard

    (Apollo 13, Backdraft, Cocoon, Far and Away, Grand Theft Auto, Gung Ho, Night Shift, The Paper, Ransom, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Splash, Willow

)

Producer:

    Brian Grazer

Screenplay:

    Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Music:

    Randy Newman

Cast:

    Gil: Steve Martin (All of Me, Bowfinger, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Father of the Bridge 1 & 2, Grand Canyon, Housesitter, The Jerk, L.A. Story, Leap of Faith, Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Lonely Guy,The Man With Two Brains, Mixed Nuts, The Muppet Movie, My Blue Heaven, Pennies From Heaven, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Roxanne, Sgt. Bilko, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Simple Twist of Fate, The Spanish Prisoner, Three Amigos)
    Karen: Mary Steenburgen (Back to the Future Part 3, The Butcher’s Wife, Goin’ South, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, Miss Firecracker, Nixon, Philadelphia, Powder, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?)
    Helen: Dianne Wiest (The Associate, The Birdcage, Bright Lights Big City, Bullets Over Broadway, Cookie, Cops and Robbersons, Edward Scissorhands, Falling In Love, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Horse Whisperer, Little Man Tate,The Lost Boys, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Radio Days, September)
    Frank: Jason Robards (The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993), All the President’s Men, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, A Big Hand for the Little Lady, Black Rainbow, Bright Lights Big City, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Johnny Got His Gun,Little Big League, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Paper, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,Philadelphia, Quick Change, Raise the Titanic, Storyville, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, A Thousand Acres, Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Trial (1993))
    Nathan Merrick: Rick Moranis (Brewster’s Millions, The Flintstones, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Honey We Shrunk The Kids, Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, L.A. Story, Little Giants,Little Shop of Horrors (1986), My Blue Heaven, Splitting Heirs)
    Larry: Tom Hulce (Amadeus, Black Rainbow, Fearless, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, National Lampoon’s Animal House, Shadowman, Slamdance, Wings of Courage)
    Julie: Martha Plimpton (Beautiful Girls, The Goonies, I’m Not Rappaport, I Shot Andy Warhol, Josh and S.A.M., The Mosquito Coast, Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle, Running on Empty, Samantha, Stars and Bars, TV: E.R.)
    Tod: Keanu Reeves (Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey, Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bram Stoker’s Dracula,Chain Reaction, Devil’s Advocate, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Feeling Minnesota, Freaked, I Love You To Death, Johnny Mnemonic, The Last Time I Committed Suicide, Little Buddha, The Matrix, Much Ado About Nothing, My Own Private Idaho,Point Break, Speed, Tune in Tomorrow…, A Walk in the Clouds)

Parenthoodis Ron Howard‘s affection look a family life and how things changeonce children start arriving and creating havoc. It’s an ensemble piececentring around Gil (Steve Martin) and Karen Buckman (MarySteenburgen), their friends and family. It doesn’t follow a plot per se,but behaves like a two-hour soap opera and has plenty to say to those of youwho have children (not me yet 🙂 and everyone who ever was a child.

It also does one thing that most films can’t do – it has a satisfying beginning,middle and ending, by which time there will be a further two arrivals to thecast list.

One of the film’s key factors is its script. It’s packed full of dry humourand coming back to it eleven years on from the first time I saw it, it seemsto play out a lot like an episode of The Simpsons, another series abouta family and their friends plus the pitfalls and pleasures that fate dealsthem.

There’s many a hilarious scene, but anyone who hasn’t seen the film may wantto skip the next paragraph as it details some of these moments.

  • Steve Martin experiencing his daughter puking up all over him ratherforcefully, followed by his comment that he’s “waiting for her head to spinaround”.
  • Steve trying to impress his wife by wearing “the cowboy outfit”.
  • Mary Steenburgen impressing husband Steve by trying to give him a blowjobwhilst driving the car, with unfortunate circumstances – a situation that waslater replicated by Eastenders‘s actress Gillian Taylforth inreal life.
  • Steve switching on a dildo at exactly the wrong time.
  • Rick Moranis instilling the importance of academic value intohis young daughter, the Baby-Spice-a-like Patty (Ivyann Schwan)
  • Rick interrupting his wife’s (Harley Jane Kozak) work with aclassic rendition of The Carpenters‘ “Close To You”.
  • After being innocently told by “Grandma” (her character has no other name)that “I’m shrinking”, Tom Hulce enthusiastically replies, “Bummer!”

The picture quality is fine but it’s one of Universal’s back-catalogue releases,released through Columbia, for which only a fullscreen transfer seems to exist.The same thing happened with the Region 1 DVD too. The average bitrate isa very good and steady 7.13Mb/s.

The sound comes in Dolby Surround flavour for most languages on this discand is fine, but isn’t one that’s going to blow your speakers as it’s no thattype of film.

Extras : Chapters :There’s only 16 chapters here to cover the 118-minute film, which isn’t enough,as usual. Languages and Subtitles :Being made in the days before Dolby Digital 5.1, the best most languages canhope for is Dolby Surround (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish), whileCzech citizens only get Stereo sound and the Polish and Hungarian purchasershave to suffer the film in mono. Subtitles can be seen in English, Dutch,Swedish, French and German. Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes:Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available forall of the actors and actresses listed in the cast list at the top of thisreview, plus director Ron Howard. A few pages of production notes givesome background info on the film. Menu :Similar to most Universal releases, the menu is static and silentwith a picture mirroring the cover on the main menu.

If you’ve never seen this film before then it’s certainly well worth thetwo-hour running time for those who like their comedy like their Canada, dry.

However, given that it’s a fullscreen-only transfer and the price is a pennyunder twenty notes, then I can only recommend a rental at first and a purchaseif you can buy it at a cheap price, since the film has been on TV a few timesand the video has long since entered the budget range.

FILM : ****½PICTURE QUALITY: ***SOUND QUALITY: ***EXTRAS: *½——————————-OVERALL: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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