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Tart comedy does swan dive into puddle of treacle
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Reviewed by LILA HANFT, Staff Reporter
Morris Applebaum (Peter Falk), acclaimed thespian, Jewish bohemian, and consummate New Yorker, is about to celebrate his 90th birthday with one of his infamous bashes.
After the party, he plans to commit suicide. He's not sick or depressed (on the contrary, he's dapper and energetic), but he can't tolerate the prospect of waiting for old age, disease and death to catch up with him.
“Checking Out,” now on DVD, began life as a Broadway play by Allen Swift and owes both its delights and its failures to that theatrical heritage. Once Morris's three adult children learn of his plans and rush back to New York to cope with their legendary father, the clever dialogue flies so fast you'd think this was a Kaufman & Hart comedy.
Ted (David Paymer), the eldest, has had the misfortune to be the only “normal kid” in a family of crazy eccentrics. Now an emotionally restrained psychiatrist, he can only watch helplessly as his father churns up old resentments among the siblings. “Of course, he knows how to push our buttons,” Ted says. “He installed them.”
Flo (Laura San Giacomo), producer of hit sitcoms about bitter but funny single women, is herself funny, bitter and single. “What are we going to do about Morris's Big Fat Jewish Suicide?” she quips, never at a loss for a bristling comeback.
To his father's dismay, self-effacing Barry (Judge Reinhold) has sacrificed creativity for suburban stability: His last name shortened to Apple, Barry has a failing BMW dealership for which he makes cheesy commercials (“To BMW or not to BMW. That is the question.”).
Viewers will laugh about Morris's insistence that everybody in Hollywood, no matter how implausible, is really Jewish. “According to you, Mickey Mouse was Mickey Moskowitz before he changed his name,” Flo complains. The game of “Jew or not a Jew?” gets a new twist with the appearance of Sheldon (Jeffrey D. Sams), an African-American psychiatrist who is not only Jewish but has his own list of famous celebrities who are really Jewish.
Actually, Sheldon marks the beginning of the end for this story. As he develops into a love interest for Flo, her sharp wit dulls. In finding rapprochement with one another, everyone in the Applebaum family seems to lose 30 IQ points, with the exception of Morris's tart teenage grandchildren (Joey Gray and Mary Elizabeth Winstead). It's almost excruciating to watch as these likeable characters are forced to utter the kind of trite, sappy sentiments that their earlier incarnations would have gagged on.
The journey from the film's promising beginning to its trite ending isn't pretty to watch. The screenplay lurches suddenly from the conventions of fast-paced comedy to those of feel-good family films, leaving the characters - and the audience - stranded.
“Checking Out” is worth seeing on DVD for that funny memorable first half. Watching the second part of the story is like watching a glass of milk fall to the floor. The messy emotions so artfully contained earlier spill everywhere, and the fragile comedic tropes which gave them shape, grace and purpose disappear forever.
“Checking Out” (95 min) is rated PG-13 (for language and some sexual material and thematic elements) and can be ordered online at Amazon.com.
Morris Applebaum (Peter Falk), acclaimed thespian, Jewish bohemian, and consummate New Yorker, is about to celebrate his 90th birthday with one of his infamous bashes.
After the party, he plans to commit suicide. He's not sick or depressed (on the contrary, he's dapper and energetic), but he can't tolerate the prospect of waiting for old age, disease and death to catch up with him.
“Checking Out,” now on DVD, began life as a Broadway play by Allen Swift and owes both its delights and its failures to that theatrical heritage. Once Morris's three adult children learn of his plans and rush back to New York to cope with their legendary father, the clever dialogue flies so fast you'd think this was a Kaufman & Hart comedy.
Ted (David Paymer), the eldest, has had the misfortune to be the only “normal kid” in a family of crazy eccentrics. Now an emotionally restrained psychiatrist, he can only watch helplessly as his father churns up old resentments among the siblings. “Of course, he knows how to push our buttons,” Ted says. “He installed them.”
Flo (Laura San Giacomo), producer of hit sitcoms about bitter but funny single women, is herself funny, bitter and single. “What are we going to do about Morris's Big Fat Jewish Suicide?” she quips, never at a loss for a bristling comeback.
To his father's dismay, self-effacing Barry (Judge Reinhold) has sacrificed creativity for suburban stability: His last name shortened to Apple, Barry has a failing BMW dealership for which he makes cheesy commercials (“To BMW or not to BMW. That is the question.”).
Viewers will laugh about Morris's insistence that everybody in Hollywood, no matter how implausible, is really Jewish. “According to you, Mickey Mouse was Mickey Moskowitz before he changed his name,” Flo complains. The game of “Jew or not a Jew?” gets a new twist with the appearance of Sheldon (Jeffrey D. Sams), an African-American psychiatrist who is not only Jewish but has his own list of famous celebrities who are really Jewish.
Actually, Sheldon marks the beginning of the end for this story. As he develops into a love interest for Flo, her sharp wit dulls. In finding rapprochement with one another, everyone in the Applebaum family seems to lose 30 IQ points, with the exception of Morris's tart teenage grandchildren (Joey Gray and Mary Elizabeth Winstead). It's almost excruciating to watch as these likeable characters are forced to utter the kind of trite, sappy sentiments that their earlier incarnations would have gagged on.
The journey from the film's promising beginning to its trite ending isn't pretty to watch. The screenplay lurches suddenly from the conventions of fast-paced comedy to those of feel-good family films, leaving the characters - and the audience - stranded.
“Checking Out” is worth seeing on DVD for that funny memorable first half. Watching the second part of the story is like watching a glass of milk fall to the floor. The messy emotions so artfully contained earlier spill everywhere, and the fragile comedic tropes which gave them shape, grace and purpose disappear forever.
“Checking Out” (95 min) is rated PG-13 (for language and some sexual material and thematic elements) and can be ordered online at Amazon.com.
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