Allen Wagner, Andrew Wagner, Billy Wirth

A retired couple journeys from New York to Los Angeles to reconnect with their son in this quirky comedy. After Judy and Allen learn that there's an open teacher position for their son at his old scho...( read more  read more... )ol, they decide to tell him the news in person. Along with their two daughters, the couple sets off on a cross-country drive in which family secrets are revealed. Director Andrew Wagner stars along with family members Allen, Judy, Emily and Maggie.

Flixster Users

46% liked it

14 ratings

Critics

58% liked it

48 critics

Unrated

Directed by: Andrew Wagner

Release Date: December 31, 2005

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DVD Release Date: March 7, 2006

Stats: 13 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (13)


  • June 5, 2009
    India from friend Andrew
  • November 20, 2008
    Andrew Wagner wrote, produced and directed this bizarre, often funny and affecting take on his family, which feels like it could be reality, but which Wagner described as a "fiction film using the materials of a documentary." His family must be good sports! Andrew's mother Judy i...( read more)s a very tough old broad - she balks incredulously at the suggestion that she may have been a less-than-decent mother, and she wonders why she hasn't heard from her son in months. Her husband Allen, a former Wall Street stock specialist, has suffered a stroke, and his speech is impaired, but if you listen long and hard enough he comes to be understandable. They decide to buy a van and drive cross-country to visit their teacher/screenwriter son Andrew in Los Angeles. Along the way, they pick up their daughters Maggie and Emily (you may remember her as Doris, the paramedic on TV's "ER"), and make it into a family outing. Along the way, old wounds are addressed, past indiscretions discussed, in-jokes are indulged, and plans for the future are made. It's all a bit surreal, actually, because with Andrew doing the cinematography - though you only see him at the end - they are not "aware" of his presence as they go to see him, and are presumably playing versions of themselves that he has written with him filming it all; this is like ultra-metafiction. My favorite "character" was Emily, who dreams of getting liposuction so that "when a guy is fucking me, some of the stuff won't hang out." The film is odd, funny, a little sad in some ways, but moving. NOTE: Wagner went on to direct "Starting Out in the Evening" (2007), the acclaimed film about a writer, his daughter, and his relationship with a young student, featuring a much-acclaimed performance by Frank Langella.
  • August 24, 2008
    From my perspective, to become interested in the movie, you have to be interested in the characters... There was really nothing about the characters I wanted to become interested in...

Critic Reviews


September 29, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A brave, funny, affecting film. full review

August 12, 2005
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Most of us really, really don't want to be a fly on the wall while somebody else's family works out its issues in interstate therapy sessions. full review

View more The Talent Given Us reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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