Add me to the list of people who feel like this movie (and the play it's based on) may have resonated with a generation coming out of WWII but feels dated and inconsequential now.
Near the end of the film, during yet another tedious argument Martin Sheen's character is having with his father, played by Jack Albertson, Sheen says something like "we're talking in circles." Boy is that an apt description of this entire movie. It's just a non-stop barrage of petty bickering that picks at the same topics over and over again, without the topics themselves being meaty enough to feel dramatically satisfying. Sheen isn't once convincing as the son of Albertson and his wife, played by Patricia Neal. There's a certain chemistry that exists between family members, even dysfunctional ones, that is missing here. Albertson picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance, but his overbearing father is nearly intolerable by the time the movie's over.
Neal also received an Oscar nod, in the Best Actress category, despite the fact that Albertson is on screen as much as she is, but I can understand why the filmmakers felt like she could compete in the lead while Albertson didn't have a chance. That kind of category fraud still happens all the time now.
Grade: C+
Near the end of the film, during yet another tedious argument Martin Sheen's character is having with his father, played by Jack Albertson, Sheen says something like "we're talking in circles." Boy is that an apt description of this entire movie. It's just a non-stop barrage of petty bickering that picks at the same topics over and over again, without the topics themselves being meaty enough to feel dramatically satisfying. Sheen isn't once convincing as the son of Albertson and his wife, played by Patricia Neal. There's a certain chemistry that exists between family members, even dysfunctional ones, that is missing here. Albertson picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance, but his overbearing father is nearly intolerable by the time the movie's over.
Neal also received an Oscar nod, in the Best Actress category, despite the fact that Albertson is on screen as much as she is, but I can understand why the filmmakers felt like she could compete in the lead while Albertson didn't have a chance. That kind of category fraud still happens all the time now.
Grade: C+