The Thing About My Folks
The Thing About My Folks
PG-13 | 16 September 2005 (USA)
The Thing About My Folks Trailers

Ben's dad Sam shows up one night with a note from Ben's mother (Sam's wife of 46 years), that she has left. While Ben's wife and his three sisters try to find her, Ben takes Sam on a day trip to see a farmhouse that's for sale. The day trip turns into a road trip while dad and son explore their past, their relationship, and why Sam's wife might have left him. The road trip includes fishing, drinking, playing pool, sleeping under the stars, and frank discussion. Anger simmers close at hand, as do love and hope. Where Sam's wife is - and why she left - leads to the movie's resolution.

Reviews
BlazeLime Strong and Moving!
Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
John Oliver The movie gets to the guts of the tension between a son and a father.The brilliant dialog, lovely scenery and great acting serve as an excellent way to present the onion that keeps peeling back layers.The core issues of parenting, communication and manhood are explored indirectly.In fun ways the curtain is pulled back, the masks slip off a little and truths are exposed.All of this happens amidst a road trip format. The backdrop is rural New York state in the early fall just as the trees are changing colors. WOW!
mrcaw1 I won't go into too much detail about the plot of this movie as other reviewers have covered pretty much the same ground.Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed the film very much. Peter Falk's performance alone is reason enough to watch the film.A small scale 'road trip' movie with Falk & Paul Reiser in upstate NY in the fall is the setting for most of the action in the film.Very well written with an adult target audience in mind. Plenty of reality based humor & some well played drama give the film a feeling that it could be your own family.Really can't say enough about this film except that it's a damn shame that a lovely movie like this doesn't get more exposure while other trashy junk out there does.It's great to see Falk with a big leading man role again & he makes the most of it. It proves that his famous friend & writer/director John Casavettes was right in casting Falk in many of his ground breaking films of the 60s & 70s.
gfiorini I enjoyed this film, perhaps because I had not seen any reviews, etc. It was delightful and a little bit of a 'romp'. I don't know why it didn't make more of a splash than it did. As far as the story goes, I could relate to some aspects of the Paul Reiser character, and I could "see my dad" in Falk's character. Made me remember a lot of past times when I was a kid and listening to my grandparents, too. If you enjoyed movies like Grumpy Old Men or On Golden Pond, this is your movie. A "sleeper", in my opinion, and one of those feel-good stories. Peter Falk and Paul Reiser had many wonderful verbal tussles, yet nothing was overdone. I would say it rates at least an 8, perhaps higher.
spamthishard It's a father - son relationship crap that goes nowhere and comes from nowhere.. Give me break.. They repeat a few times as a joke this : the disgusting old man farts.. is this the best you could do ? And you call this a comedy..What, am I supposed to laugh when they go fishing and do nothing and say nothing ? You think that if some tits go near the old man's nose and he admits the tits are OK, that's funny ?People, don't watch this crap ! Thir strongest joke is when the old man thinks that a girl with ripped pants is poor.. come on !Someone just had to make a script around this old actor, with very low budget.. this movie made me feel like a bird being stuffed alive..This movie is insulting because it assumes that we could watch anything and we're stupid enough to buy (or follow) any of their stupid meaningless hints, about life and relationships .. This is the perfect example for the American style commercial, useless, stupid and insulting movie.