Yes, the performances of Billy Crystal and Alan King are very showy, but they are cliches of that type of character, not real people. After a while, it begins to get tiresome watching them go through their antics. Crystal is a successful New York doctor who plays the trumpet in surgery, and after a medical issue of his own decides to reach out to his estranged father King who was working as an extra in Hollywood, and one of the most disliked ones on the set. His constant interruptions are an annoyance to directors and actors and crew, and Crystal gets to witness it first hand. His girlfriend JoBeth Williams encourages him to try to further make amends, but when you've got someone so demanding as King, that's going to be a very difficult decision to make and stick with. But an aneurysm on his brain has Crystal sticking around, so there's a lot of schmaltzy dialog between the two that considering their long-term relationship begins to get cumbersome.
The two actors individually are funny, and in small doses, together, they do get a few laughs. But after a while, it seems like they're trying to outdo each other or impress each other in character, and any efforts for pathos is difficult to deal. Williams, while very good, doesn't look deep into the reality of the situation, and overall, it's obvious that both of these characters as father and son are engaged very self-centered and narcissistic, and not really worth rooting for in the context of a movie. Director Henry Winkler obviously was too confident in the two actors and just let them go without reigning them in at all, while a good knife and Sharpie would have worked wonders on editing out the corny parts of the script. It's not horrible, but after a while, it gets to be a bit too much. A cameo by Sean Connery is cute but unnecessary, and scenes on the sets of a daytime soap opera don't ring true. Janet Carroll of "Murphy Brown" is always a welcome present, but she doesn't get nearly enough to do.
The two actors individually are funny, and in small doses, together, they do get a few laughs. But after a while, it seems like they're trying to outdo each other or impress each other in character, and any efforts for pathos is difficult to deal. Williams, while very good, doesn't look deep into the reality of the situation, and overall, it's obvious that both of these characters as father and son are engaged very self-centered and narcissistic, and not really worth rooting for in the context of a movie. Director Henry Winkler obviously was too confident in the two actors and just let them go without reigning them in at all, while a good knife and Sharpie would have worked wonders on editing out the corny parts of the script. It's not horrible, but after a while, it gets to be a bit too much. A cameo by Sean Connery is cute but unnecessary, and scenes on the sets of a daytime soap opera don't ring true. Janet Carroll of "Murphy Brown" is always a welcome present, but she doesn't get nearly enough to do.