In Memory of My Father

Stars: Chris Jaymes, Judy Greer, Jeremy Sisto, Nicholle Tom, Christine Lakin, Pat Healy, Eric Michael Cole, Monet Mazur, Matt Keeslar

Director: Christopher Jaymes

The dysfunctional family to end them all. Two brothers video their father dying, then join the funeral party, as various couples break up and re-assemble into other (equally dysfunctional) couples.

With stream-of-consciousness, overlapping dialogue, this gabfest is intensely annoying at first, but does eventually reach out for some depth and humour in its situations towards the end. Veneers of civilisation are not so much stripped away as non-existent in the first place, and performances grate accordingly, with only Sisto bringing nuance to his dialogue.

Jaymes' clever-clever direction isn't half as smart as he thinks it is, but he should at least be congratulated in creating for himself one of the nastiest characters we've seen on the screen this year. It's the kind of film that wins prizes at minor festivals, but viewers of such quickfire TV fare as CSI and Law & Order would be reaching for the channel switch in less than five minutes.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: The Associates. Colour by Listo.
96 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 2, Swearing 3.

Review date: 02 Jun 2008