• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give
You are here: Home / Film / The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

October 13, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

The Meyerowitz family has spent their lives talking past each other. How can they find ways to say the important things that must be said? Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is a comic, yet painful look at a family that must struggle to get past a lifetime of the barriers they have built between each other.

The film is an ensemble piece with a strong cast. Family patriarch Harold (Dustin Hoffman) is a little-known sculptor and retired art teacher. He is defined by his outsized sense of importance. His son Danny (Adam Sadler) is moving in with him after Danny’s daughter heads off to college and Danny and his wife separate. Danny’s sister Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) leads a peaceful suburban life. Danny’s half-brother Matthew (Ben Stiller) is a well-off West Coast money manager. (Others rounding out the cast are Emma Thompson, Judd Hirsch, Grace Van Patten, and Candace Bergen)

All three of the children have issues with Harold. They also have issues with each other. As the film progresses these issues become apparent, but when Harold’s health fails, they must learn to bridge the emotional chasms that have grown through the years. Many of the problems involve Harold’s self-absorption. His ego seems to believe that all the world should revolve around him. He notices almost nothing about those around him. Because of this, conversations are often two people talking about different topics, never hearing what the other person is saying.

These scenes are comic, but they make for a painful comedy, because they grow out of the suffering that each person has buried for so long. Hoffman, Sadler, and Stiller are all accomplished in comedy, and it serves the film well to have them in these roles, even though it is much more somber than we are used to seeing them.

This focus on lack of the ability to communicate with each other is the foundation for the most powerful section of the film in the last third, after Harold’s health suddenly becomes a serious concern. The siblings, each in their own way, must find their paths to say goodbye to the father that has been such an aggravation to them. As it so often the case, the animosity is interwoven with the love they each feel for their father. That complexity creates a struggle far more difficult to deal with than the frustrations they felt when Harold was healthy. The struggle with impending grief adds yet another layer of pain to the dynamic. As the closing credits roll, Randy Newman’s song “Old Man” plays, which provides an excellent coda to this tragi-comedy.

The film is showing in select theaters and also streaming on Netflix

Photos courtesy of Netflix

 

Share it!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, death and dying, Dustin Hoffman, dysfunctional family, Emma Thompson, Judd Hirsch, Netflix, Noah Baumbach, tragi-comedy

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • The Mauritanian: How Do You Know What’s True?
  • The Last Vermeer: What Would You Do For the Truth?
  • Crisis – Trying to Take on Opioids
  • The Croods: A New Age – Stone Age Meets the Modern Age
  • Giveaway! THE CROODS: A NEW AGE on Blu-Ray!
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

Footer

ScreenFish Articles

The Mauritanian: How Do You Know What’s True?

The Last Vermeer: What Would You Do For the Truth?

  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 · ScreenFish.net · Built by Aaron Lee

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.