A Marvelous Movie

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2006)

This film in its frequently anarchic spirit resembles in a good way some of the signal endeavors of the 60's, namely "The Graduate" and "5 Easy Pieces." Business as usual in America, whether in social space or as it pervades the domestic sphere, is here given a freshly felt, genuinely contemporary, non-ideological, sharp-eyed scrutiny. Family life, when everyone "pursues his own bliss," is shown to become less personally liberating than a ground for finding others in one's way, and frequently annoying, if not in fact hateful. In career choices, it may lead to wildly unsuitable decisions, given one's actual talents or disabilities. In romance, it may encourage betrayal should a better option appear. In drug use, it may lead to death. There must be more to life, the film implies, than these attempts at bankrupt Nietzschean choice and then consistency in efforts at having one's foolish way or at all costs "winning." Greg Kinnear voices his impatience with those around him first at the dinner table and then towards non-customer friendly service people of varied ethnicity, both at a hospital and at an absurd beauty pageant for children. This same subversive spirit bubbles out of almost every line the wonderful Alan Arkin utters as Grandpa. All in all a marvelous comedy of ideas.