*** Routine but hilarious

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2001)

One of the most successful comedies of the year is this charming little romance about a quirky nurse (Ben Stiller) who is brought to his girlfriend's up-state, upper-class, uptight house in New England to meet her parents. Things seem fine at first, but soon Stiller realizes that the menacing father of the house (Robert DeNiro) really is after his hide. Blythe Danner is lovely as the girl's mother, and Teri Polo (who remembers her from The House of the Spirits as the dead Rosa? I do!) is appropriately luminous as the lucky young lady. Features a hilarious cameo by Owen Wilson as a millionaire who does carpentry on the side to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.