MOVIES : Meet the Fockers
Comedy or Rebuke of the current crack down on american liberties?
This is a sequel to the 'Meet the Parents', a comedy with Ben Stiller I have never seen (maybe that's because it's got Ben Stiller in it...). In the original Ben is trying to woo the parents of his girlfriend, I guess so they can marry, but the Father is a recently retired CIA boy and spends the movie checking out Stiller, and determining if he should be included in his 'circle of trust'.
Obviously Stiller manages to enter this coveted circle, because in the second film it is a few months before their marriage and the parents of both families are meeting for the first time; Ben's parents are liberal jews.
Oh we laughed! That clash of cultures; jewish and christian, liberal and conservative, makes for such fun. Well, maybe not, certainly I didn't laugh all that much, but I did laugh, and I did enjoy myself.
The question I ask though is this : was this movie actually a hidden story about the erosion of american liberties in the face of terrorism, versus the liberal, free thinking intelligencia? Kind of like The Castle was actually about aboriginal land rights.
Here we have an Arsehole of a father (as we are informed by his grandson - the first word he learns (oh I laughed!)) who spies on his future son in law, can't relate to his wife, and trains his grandson like this 1 year old is in military camp. The whole movie revolves around everyone else trying to pretend that things aren't happening so he doesn't get angry, and the climax (spoiler warning!!!) starts when the father discovers that every one has been lying to him, and so HEs the one outside of the circle of trust. This is followed by his total transformation and assimilation into the (necesarily perfect and correct) liberal jewish culture.
(As an aside, I am sure that if you have read any other of my entries in my blogs that you will realise that I subscribe the the liberal jewish side of things - though I'm not jewish :)
So the circle of trust is america, and the Father is the government (big brother) spying on all its citizens to make sure they are being good little boys and girls, and the Fockers are Hollywood/New York etc with their melting pots of culture.
Or maybe i am just reading too much into this very successful 'comedy'.
You tell me.
(Oh, I just read someone else's review which reminded me that there are other things than politics to admire in this piece. Barbra Striesand does a magnificent job as the mother, I really liked her and thought the costume designer did a great job of making an older, not light woman look sexy. The movie also had Dustin Hoffman as the liberal father and Robert De Niro returning as arsehole dad. Neither of their performances were remarkable, except i would have liked Robert to communicate (physically) his transformation at the end more)
This is a sequel to the 'Meet the Parents', a comedy with Ben Stiller I have never seen (maybe that's because it's got Ben Stiller in it...). In the original Ben is trying to woo the parents of his girlfriend, I guess so they can marry, but the Father is a recently retired CIA boy and spends the movie checking out Stiller, and determining if he should be included in his 'circle of trust'.
Obviously Stiller manages to enter this coveted circle, because in the second film it is a few months before their marriage and the parents of both families are meeting for the first time; Ben's parents are liberal jews.
Oh we laughed! That clash of cultures; jewish and christian, liberal and conservative, makes for such fun. Well, maybe not, certainly I didn't laugh all that much, but I did laugh, and I did enjoy myself.
The question I ask though is this : was this movie actually a hidden story about the erosion of american liberties in the face of terrorism, versus the liberal, free thinking intelligencia? Kind of like The Castle was actually about aboriginal land rights.
Here we have an Arsehole of a father (as we are informed by his grandson - the first word he learns (oh I laughed!)) who spies on his future son in law, can't relate to his wife, and trains his grandson like this 1 year old is in military camp. The whole movie revolves around everyone else trying to pretend that things aren't happening so he doesn't get angry, and the climax (spoiler warning!!!) starts when the father discovers that every one has been lying to him, and so HEs the one outside of the circle of trust. This is followed by his total transformation and assimilation into the (necesarily perfect and correct) liberal jewish culture.
(As an aside, I am sure that if you have read any other of my entries in my blogs that you will realise that I subscribe the the liberal jewish side of things - though I'm not jewish :)
So the circle of trust is america, and the Father is the government (big brother) spying on all its citizens to make sure they are being good little boys and girls, and the Fockers are Hollywood/New York etc with their melting pots of culture.
Or maybe i am just reading too much into this very successful 'comedy'.
You tell me.
(Oh, I just read someone else's review which reminded me that there are other things than politics to admire in this piece. Barbra Striesand does a magnificent job as the mother, I really liked her and thought the costume designer did a great job of making an older, not light woman look sexy. The movie also had Dustin Hoffman as the liberal father and Robert De Niro returning as arsehole dad. Neither of their performances were remarkable, except i would have liked Robert to communicate (physically) his transformation at the end more)
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