Being Fockerized Becomes A Jewish Hug

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2004)

I didn't see the precursor to "Meet the Fockers," but so much of it has entered general popular culture that I could get all the references, plus the young noisy audience I saw it with helpfully shouted out all the links.
This audience loved the easy-going slapstick and physical humor the best. The sight gags with the nephew baby are at the "Look Who's Talking" level.
While much of the movie is just plain silly and predictable, the old pro's Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand and Robert DeNiro are having so much fun that they are completely irresistible.
Streisand in particular avoids the usual stereotypes of a Jewish mother by creating a character who is a bit kooky, as a sex therapist for senior citizens, but, as her husband admiringly says, "a very strong woman." I particularly liked how Hoffman, playing real mensch, defends their relationship with their son to the in-laws, that the worst they can be accused of is loving him. The script, mostly by the same writers as the original, doesn't let Blythe Danner portray any of the brittle manipulativeness she masterfully displays in the Showtime series "Huff." This may be the most benign image of secular Jews since Barry Levinson's Baltimore nostalgia-fest with Jews here being portrayed as earthy, honest and emotional. Streisand throws in less Yiddish than Michael Meyers used in imitating his mother-in-law on "Saturday Night Live." The closing wedding tries for compromise in that they are married under a huppah canopy, with a yarmulke-wearing gag "interfaith minister" (Owen Wilson in a cameo recall from the first movie) who clumsily does a kiddush blessing on the wine for no particular reason, instead of the traditional breaking of the glass. The daughter takes her stand by declaring herself a Focker and his parents triumphantly assert that her family has been Fockerized  a new kind of assimilation strategy, though the audience mostly responded to the pun.
What was odd was that the writers or the director were so afraid that their portrayal of the Jewish parents might seem offensive that they added on a coda over the credits where Ben Stiller, more in his real persona than as "Gaylord Focker," redundantly and explicitly defends his family for hugging, loving and being in touch with their emotions. The audience stayed through this tirade expecting a jokey punchline and were confused that there wasn't really any.
While Randy Newman did the music, there's only two originals of his breezy songs, over the opening and closing credits, and they are not particularly outstanding. It is odd that several classic rock songs are thrown in.