Man of the House

Directed by James Orr, Man of the House follows Jonathan Taylor Thomas’ Ben Archer as he attempts to sabotage his mother’s (Farrah Fawcett’s Sandy) relationship with her new boyfriend (Chevy Chase’s Jack). It’s a familiar but reasonable-enough premise that’s employed to mostly disappointing and uninvolving effect by Orr, as the filmmaker, armed with his and Jim Cruickshank’s screenplay, delivers a lackadaisical, padded-out comedy that contains few agreeable elements – with the picture’s arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by its lack of laughs and momentum-free narrative (ie the whole thing is, in terms of the latter, just so relentlessly episodic). And while the trio of stars offer up relatively agreeable work, despite Thomas’ underwhelming and unconvincing efforts at hitting certain emotional notes, Man of the House forces the performers into a storyline focused on their annoyingly combative exploits – with this particularly true of Ben’s irritating attempts at driving Jack away. It goes without saying, as a consequence, that Orr’s eventual efforts at tugging at one’s heartstrings fall completely and hopelessly flat, with the end result a predominantly ineffective misfire that grates more than it entertains.

** out of ****