There are movies — and “The Thing About My Folks” is Exhibit A — that owe their impact not to the filmmakers’ inspiration but to the life experiences that audiences bring with them into the theater.
Paul Reiser’s slender fable of an adult son bonding with his aging father is closer to an outline for a movie than a full-bodied work. Its plot is hopelessly routine, and the central characters are bland, generic New Yorkers of little detail and depth.
But the universal aspects of the story and its simple, obvious truths encourage viewers to tap into the emotions surrounding their own relationships with parents and spouses. Odds are you’ll need a Kleenex, but don’t confuse a few sniffles with artistic achievement.
Happily married Ben Kleinman (Reiser) is putting his daughters to bed one night when his father drops by unexpectedly. Sam (Peter Falk) is in a state of disorientation because, he eventually blurts out, his wife of 47 years has left him.
The next day, while Ben’s three sisters set about tracking down their mother, the prodigal son takes Sam with him to scout a country home in upstate New York that he and his wife are contemplating buying.
This pedestrian road trip spawns a series of low-level misadventures, which give Ben new insight into the father he thought he knew. The duo bonds over such manly interests as cars, baseball and steak, and regain their mutual respect.
Predictably, along the way Ben can’t resist venting his grudge against his old man, who had a habit of dousing the young Ben’s dreams with cold water to “protect” him from disappointment. This particular conversation is about the only thing, other than their name, that identifies the family as Jewish.
Rest assured there is no dark cloud over this family beyond petty jealousy and garden-variety neurosis. Reiser’s trademark amiability coats “The Thing About My Folks” like the glaze on a doughnut.
Raymond De Felitta is credited as the director, but it’s Reiser’s picture all the way. His screenplay is not only inspired by his own familial relationships, but the tone is right in line with the soft-centered and lightly sentimental comedy that has defined his style for years.
For some viewers, Falk’s presence will initially evoke memories of the harrowing films he made with John Cassavetes. Not for long, though, for pain and confusion have no place in this movie — although a running gag about Sam’s flatulence does. Ultimately, Falk’s performance consists largely of twinkle-eyed shtick executed very well.
The film trades primarily on the easygoing charm and bemused banter familiar to fans of Reiser’s television series, “Mad About You.” There’s a pervasive sense that no serious harm will come to anyone and that — after a few old mistakes are confronted and acknowledged — everything will work out fine.
Reiser, like Billy Crystal, entwines his comedy with a moralistic (but hardly controversial) admonition to place family at the top of the hierarchy.
And as with much of both comics’ work, “The Thing About My Folks” stakes out the innocuous territory between situation comedies and TV movies. A feel-good flick with a poignant dollop of wisdom, it is a Hallmark card for adults.
“The Thing About My Folks” opens Friday, Sept. 30, at Bay Area theaters.