A New Jewish (and Family) Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2004)

This is a nice film about how two completely opposite families meet under the simple circumstances that two people love each other.. It is a warm story about Greg and Pam when the Byrneses meet the Fockers. It is funny, it is thrilling, and it is almost half in Yiddish, thanks to the utterly fantastic performance by Barbra Streisand. Some may say that Dustin Hoffman acts great in this film, but Barbra Streisand depicts what she believes is herself... if she were a PhD in sex therapy. Robert DeNiro is the same lovable dad, except a lot further off the deep end with the pitiful, hateful anger that any dad may have before his first-born daughter's wedding to a person who is so different from himself and his family. To be honest, the entire Focker-Byrnes family is very comparable to my own, which makes it somewhat easier to reflect on. The Fockers- a Northern USA family, moved to Miami. Simple yet outgoing and sometimes a little loud with expressions. The Byrneses- Long Island common family, who may never move away, who somewhat flirts with their success over others, shyly and quietly. They bask their uniqueness, yet hide many things, while allowing for social mobility and freedom by using the "Circle of Trust." 9.3/10 *'s because the first film REALLY helps- a lot, yet it's not perfect because some things are not revisited from the first movie.