All cringe, no comedy

Rating: 1/10 (3 February 2008)

The setting of this movie is the first encounter of the respective parents of an engaged couple; the premise is the expectation --- which is certainly realized --- that both bride and groom will be somewhat embarrassed by their parents' (chiefly their fathers') little ways.
Hoffman and de Niro do their best, I guess; they act their socks off trying to out-gross each other as the ghastly fathers apparently maximizing the embarrassment of their wives, their offspring, and each other. They do what they can with the setup and the screenplay, but this movie can only have been designed as cringe comedy --- there is no visible attempt at other kinds of humour --- and the result is all cringe, but no comedy.
My one note of praise and wonderment is for Bradley and Spencer Pickren who play Little Jack, the de Niro character's grandson, who has not yet learned to talk but who has an extensive language of signing with the hands to communicate with his family --- well, with his grandfather anyway. The performance of these toddlers is marvellous. The rest, including Streisand, do their best with an expensive backers' nightmare, a lead balloon.