Director: Alex Kurtzman
Writers: Alex Kurtzman (Cowboys and Aliens, Transformers),
Starring: Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michael Hall D'Addario, Philip Baker Hall, Mark Duplass, Michelle Pfeiffer
Sam is a New York City twenty-something, fast-talking salesman. His latest deal collapses on the day he learns that his father has suddenly died. Against his wishes, Sam is called home, where he must put his father's estate in order and reconnect with his estranged family. In the course of fulfilling his father's last wishes, Sam uncovers a startling secret that turns his entire world upside down: He has a 30-year-old sister Frankie whom he never knew about. As their relationship develops, Sam is forced to rethink everything he thought he knew about this family and re-examine his own life choices in the process.
Sam is a New York City twenty-something, fast-talking salesman. His latest deal collapses on the day he learns that his father has suddenly died. Against his wishes, Sam is called home, where he must put his father's estate in order and reconnect with his estranged family. In the course of fulfilling his father's last wishes, Sam uncovers a startling secret that turns his entire world upside down: He has a 30-year-old sister Frankie whom he never knew about. As their relationship develops, Sam is forced to rethink everything he thought he knew about this family and re-examine his own life choices in the process.
People Like Us is not about people like us. (Your time might be just as well spent listening to 'People Like Us' by the Mamas and The Papas at least then you can avoid an annoying 11 year old using the 'F' bomb and other likewise cultured speech.) If that sort of thing doesn't deter you, you just might find something interesting in this movie.
People Like Us is a morality tale about forgiveness and personal relationships. Unfortunately it is based on Hollywood morals, of course that in itself is that an oxymoron. They say you can't choose your family but you can choose whether or not you will love them.
It's not so much the problem of the acting, I think they do an adequate job with what they have to work with. It is the writing, the story, that is at fault. All of the characters are flawed (as we all are) but thanks to the moral relativism of Hollywood, no one is responsible for the choices that led them to where they are now. Everyone's an innocent victim and daddy, Jerry (Dean Chekvala), is the boogie-man in the family closet. Yet even he, in the end we are supposed to believe, is a loving father who just happened to have two families. Now, in Hollywood, that's no biggie...but if the story were, for example, about a polygamist family relationship where the family is committed, married and living together that would simply be beyond the pale! In the Hollywood world of elitist superiority, it's perfectly fine to commit all the same 'sins' as the polygamists, just so long as you don't marry, then everything is AOK. (Don't read into this that I'm advocating for polygamy, I'm just pointing out the hypocritical Hollywood double standards when it comes to morality.) In one scene (see the clip below), single mom Frankie, threatens a law suit unless the principal lets her reckless and disrespectful son off the hook for blowing up the school's pool. The entire cast of characters are egotistic, selfish and self absorbed.
The writers have deemed that casual usage of profanity by both adults and children is 'realism', which is always less challenging than actual creative writing. While were on the subject of weak writing,..the time it takes for Sam to reveal to Frankie that they are siblings is way too long. Like in so many sitcoms, the entire conflict could be avoided if one of the characters just spoke up in a timely fashion, this film suffers from the same malady. Any sane person would never hatch the plan of action that Sam decides to put into play, of course if he had introduced himself to Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) as her brother it wouldn't be the story Mr. Kurtzman felt a need to tell. His screenplay is semi-autobiographical.
Most people are not like Hollywood movie industry people and their lavish lifestyles, they are not 'People Like (most of) Us'. When the big reveal does finally arrive at the end of the film it is very touching, you'd have to have left your heart at home to not be moved by it, and of course because of this we are to forgive all the infidelity, lies, secrets and betrayals because daddy loved both of his children. What does it matter if his two children have spent decades tormented, alienated from daddy and doubting themselves along with all the accompanying baggage.We'll just tie it up in a nice bow and everyone will live happily ever after.
This film is not for children nor is it for teens considering the life style lessons.In my opinion the PG-13 rating probably should have been an R for the language alone.
Synopsis:
Sam (Chris Pine), a cocky New York salesman, makes the unlikely and whip-fast transformation from shady to kindhearted when he uncovers a startling family secret. His professional world comes undone on the same day he learns that his estranged father has died. Along with his fiance, Hannah (Olivia Wild), he grudgingly returns home to L.A. for the funeral.
Upon arrival, he is immediately at odds with his, angry, bitter, self-absorbed mom Lillian (Michelle Pfeiffer).
His father's lawyer (Philip Baker Hall) asks for a meeting where he give Sam his inheritance, his father's old shaving kit. When he opens it, after the lawyer leaves, he discovers $150,000 inside and and odd request, to deliver the money to Frankie (Elizabeth Banks), a woman living on the margins with her reckless 11-year-old son, Josh (Michael Hall D'Addario). Sam decides to keep the money and resolve his financial troubles.
As it turns out, Frankie is Sam's half-sister, his dad's daughter from a liaison he had all but abandoned. Sam had no idea she existed. This situation serves up one of the hardest aspects of the story to swallow, the way Sam chooses to interact with Frankie. Where most people would likely just introduce themselves, Sam decides to sneak around and insert himself in her life, first off pretending to be a member of her AA group.
The movie is nearly over before Sam tells Frankie who he really is, well after some awkward moments in which Frankie mistakes his attentions as romantic interest. The big reveal is, of course, is the crux of the drama. But it in no way resembles how real people act. Consequently what is meant to be a major emotional climax feels forced.
The only intriguing aspect of the story, I suppose, is the contrast in how brother and sister expressed their disappointment with their dad as children. Sam resented his father's obsession with his work as a music producer, and as an adult he never bothered to visit or call while his father battled cancer. Frankie spent most of her life yearning for him and craving contact.
This emotional honesty is undercut by a clichéd scene (see clip below) in which Sam relates "six life lessons," to Josh, passed down from his dad, as Frankie listens covertly from the hallway all choked up and misty-eyed.
Mired in mawkish over-earnestness sentimentality, People Like Us does not actually come that close to the behavior of real human beings. Perhaps, People Unlike Us, would be a more accurate title.
The Cast:
