Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

What leads me to watch this film is Dianne Wiest's singular Oscar-nomination, how rare a mainstream comedy stars Steve Martin could generate an Oscar-caliber performance? Is it as wackily diverting as Marisa Tomei in MY COUSIN VINNY (1992, 7/10) or a rowdy and raunchy scene-stealer as Melissa McCarthy in BRIDESMAIDS (2011, 7/10)? Neither is the case here, thus the answer could only be that it is Academy's honeymoon period with Wiest, who has just won an Oscar 3 years earlier for Woody Allen's HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986, 8/10) and would harvest her second trophy pretty soon in another Allen's satire BULLETS OVER Broadway (1994, 8/10).However, skimming through the credits, it is a quite impressive ensemble here, besides Wiest, there are Oscar winners Steenburgen and Robards, the flash-in-the-pan Oscar nominee Tom Hulce with future leading man Keanu Reeves and Joaquin Phoenix, the burn-too-soon starlet Martha Plimpton, and it is directed by Ron Howard to boot, chances are the film might be more than a crowd-pleasing family fare, and again, I am so wrong!It is a big family, its patriarch Frank (Robards) has four children, the eldest Helen (Wiest), a divorcée with two children, the adolescent Julie (Plimpton) and the introvert teenager Garry (Phoenix); Gil (Martin) is the second, he and his wife Karen (Steenburgen) have 3 children, among whom Kevin (Fisher) is a school-kid has some mood issues and needs special treatment; Susan (Kozak) is the youngest daughter, married to Nathan (Moranis), they have one girl Patty (Schwan), who is under Nathan's unconventional upbringing method and on her fast lane to become a child prodigy; the most problematic one is the youngest son Larry (Hulce), a black sheep in the family, a ne'er-do-well addicts to gambling. Spoiler alert, this is not the end, the family is keeping expanding as if it is a blatant advertisement of unprotected sex. Not exactly an out-and-out comedy, the film sums up a menagerie of headaches of being a parent, all are laboriously entwined in a cumbersome plot, and even though, in the end, everyone is still fearlessly riding on the way to make babies, yeah, being a parent is sometimes irritating, but you know what, no one can escape that, 3 is never enough, 4 might be better, even though he or she may end up being a jerk like Larry. It might be edifying 25 years ago (low birth rate in the state I assume), but now, it seems shamelessly narrow-minded and self- pleasingly irresponsible, we don't buy that now, not everyone suits to be a parent, it is a demanding job and should need a certificate, paraphrasing the dimwitted Tod (Reeves) who expresses the most incisive remark which should be legitimized so that there will be far less lousy parents in the world. On a whole, the film doesn't age well, its content feels uneasily predictable, most of time it persists in stating the obvious and plugging a unified American lifestyle, the cast is inequitable, Martin, Steenburgen, Wiest and Robards all have their moments from time to time, but Hulce and Moranis are tainted by the crappy script. Even grandma's sensible credo (roller coaster Vs. merry-go-around) sounds jarringly self-important near the end, anyway, not my cup-of-tea, period.

The likable "Parenthood" is a road trip through a set of related families. We have detours for many typical scenarios in America with some comedic moments, others are Rock Morinic, with a few poignant moments keeping the focus on the worthiness of a family life. Ron Howard and gang assembled a potent cast but went for absolute mass appeal in the face of divorce, contraception, puberty, gambling, irresponsible parenting, the blame game and life long grudges. It could have added up to more that the saccharine sweet ending we got. saw it as a single person when it came out and now on DVD as a Parent and it never managed to actually shed any light with the exception of Jason Robards who carries the message and I believe if involved more could have squeezed more juice out of this. His dealings with his two sons here seem real, while the rest seemed like acting for mass appeal.

Ron Howard has slowly found himself becoming more and more of a bona fide filmmaker as he continues to explore positivity through his films. Parenthood represents the best film he's made in the 80's and a testament to parents everywhere. Though some of the content is a bit crude, the film overall has a wonderful impact that explores both youthful angst and the family dynamic. The best part about Howard's filmmaking is that he is not being childish and supporting the angst of teenagers but he is also not being overly uptight and siding with the adults. What he is doing is an understanding and unbiased look at what has become the average American family.

because beneath the humor of the truly brilliant script, layer upon layer of a highly philosophical take on the post-68 family structure unfold (which is subtly hinted at in Helen's "I was at Woodstock, for gosh sake!") and almost every line serves as the headline of some deeply-rooted problem in modern co-existence. Without feeling force-fed or lectured, we are presented with every conceivable angle of dysfunctional family life, from Robards' negligent father figure to the neurotically duty-obsessed Steve Martin ("My whole life is 'have to'!"). It is one of those gems that tend to get truer, the more you watch it. The acting is flawless all the way through, but in the final analysis, the true genius of the film lies in the script. And then it's so wonderfully unassuming! It strikes me as being one of those films like "The Apartment," which seem like comedies the first time you see them, but veer still more towards tragedy with each time they're revisited. I forget the name of the space capsule that contained a message to whichever aliens we wanted to inform about human life on the planet Earth, but in any case: "Parenthood" is the film I would put on board. I can't think of any film more suited to giving an impression of 20th century humans.