Well done, Rogen family, well done. With Like Father, you attached real, rock solid quality actors and actresses to a story that is built on a sinkhole filled with plot contrivances. Sure let’s throw in some crazy melodrama, but look, it’s Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer! They’re cute right? RIGHT???
Bell plays Rachel, a work obsessed essentially orphan who can’t even give up her phone on her wedding day. When her almost husband leaves her at the alter, Rachel drinks herself to oblivion with her estranged father Harry (Kelsey Grammar). While blacked out, they unknowingly board the cruise Rachel booked for her honeymoon, and spend a two week trip opening up to one another.
Like Father is the Doublemint Gum of movies. It gives you 2 times what you’re looking for. Ghosts of the past characters? Great, we’ve got abandoned daughter AND Alzheimer’s caretaking. Funny side characters? Perfect: we’ve got a gay couple AND a cute black couple. Emotions need to be let out? Great! We’ve got unexpected phone calls AND a Jamaican joint session. Seth Rogen even shows up (it is his wife’s screenplay) and hooks up with 2 women! The Alzheimer’s section in particular comes out of nowhere when we were still trying to get invested in Rachel and Harry’s relationship. What Like Father fails to comprehend with the Doublemint theory is that halves any impact of each of those emotions or events. The most criminal part of this is that there are 2 endings, one that was really brave and almost too smart, so the movie obviously had to wrap up its mini loose ends and sprinkle on some sappiness to completely undo its original ending. Also, did you notice how many either cliches or forced plot movements there were here? I was rolling my eyes at the number of them at the 30 minute mark, when we enter the Cliche Cruise Liner’s Maiden Voyage?
So why would anyone want to watch this movie? Well, being a Rogen, Lauren Miller Rogen got a really good cast for her story. Kristen Bell’s character is just awful, displaying Carrie Bradshaw levels of hubris. However, Bell channels this crazy work ethic into an inability to express emotion that flows out of her in the movie’s best scene. The screenplay probably said Rachel cries, but Bell makes it actually meaningful the way she acts it. Kelsey Grammer probably heard free cruise and cocktails and was in. His character is almost too likable, but again, in another scene that shouldn’t work, Grammer uses the contrived story he’s given to deliver a great monologue about why he abandoned Rachel while still seeming like a decent man, impressive work. The supporting cast is a mixed bag; Seth Rogen is too subdued to be really funny, probably the biggest disappointment. Paul Downs is probably the highlight as one of the gay couple: he’s got charisma for days. Don’t believe me? Check this out. Downs is doing a version of his super funny Broad City character, but it’s most welcome as the opposite of the dramatic material thrust into the story.
Like Father must have been a sure, why not movie from Netflix. This story recycles stories, cliches, and characters from better movies into a “doing something else while watching this” movie category which I think the streaming giant has cornered the market on. My biggest disappointment, why use Come Sail Away when it was already perfectly used in a Seth Rogen show? Boo urns!