Dad

Directed by Gary David Goldberg, Dad follows a high-powered businessman (Ted Danson’s John Tremont) as he’s forced to put aside his busy life after his father (Jack Lemmon’s Jake) falls ill. Filmmaker Goldberg, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a sluggish and oddly-paced drama that nevertheless remains watchable for most of its overlong running time, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture benefits substantially from the top-notch work of its various performers – with Lemmon’s typically magnetic and engaging turn matched by Danson and costars like Kathy Baker, Olympia Dukakis, and Ethan Hawke. And although Goldberg has peppered with the proceedings with a number of genuinely compelling interludes and sequences, including a terrific scene wherein John outlines his failures and regrets to his sister (Baker’s Annie), Dad suffers from an increasingly overstuffed narrative that wreaks havoc on its already-tenuous sense of forward momentum (eg there’s an odd subplot involving Jake’s crumbling mental state that could and should have been excised) – which, despite a closing heartfelt closing stretch that actually fares surprisingly well, ultimately does cement the film’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that feels like it should be so much better.

**1/2 out of ****