Word: scheiderer
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...pathos, but falls far short of the mark. Its saving grace is solid ensemble acting, and Julianne Moore and "ER" darling Noah Wyle hold their own as the two central characters who make Thanksgiving squirmily uncomfortable with their barely-concealed resentment toward their tacitum and enigmatic father (Roy Scheider of "Jaws" fame). Unfortunately, none of the characters here are given enough depth or dimension to earn any true empathy...
...grainy home video--which sets the stage for the gritty, almost monochromatic texture of the rest of the movie--of an apparently happy, eminently normal family gathered together for a birthday party. The story then cuts to 20 years later, with the annual Thanksgiving reunion with the folks (Roy Scheider and Blythe Danner). This year, all four children show up: Mia (Julianne Moore), Jake (Michael Vartan), Leigh (Laurel Holloman), and, somewhat unexpectedly, the long-absent Warren (Noah Wyle). Significant others are in attendance: Mia's boyfriend, Elliot (Brian Kerwin); Jake's girlfriend, Margaret (Hope Davis); and, flitting...
...despite her witchin' and bitchin' and eventual tearful communion with a former kindergarten classmate (James LeGros, in a quirky if slender role) over a book whose title, "The Scream of Rabbits," might just as well have replaced the equally incomprehensible "Myth of Fingerprints." No less unfathomable is Scheider's stony-faced patriarch, who offers no clue to any of his actions or offenses against his children. Danner gets next to nothing to do as the sensible, yet oddly passive mother; and Kerwin's Elliot, a psychotherapist with no apparent therapeutic skills, remains a mere cipher, a receptacle...
...gaze that translates across both the big and small screen. Moore, as Mia, is convincingly abrasive and acerbic, even though the source of her anger remains a mystery. Hope Davis' Margaret brings a refreshingly clear-eyed, unselfconscious good humor that helps brighten the glumness of her surroundings, while Scheider's craggy Lincoln-like profile retains an impassive air that makes his rare moments of shame and discomfort all the more poignant. But all these praiseworthy efforts just leave one wishing that these actors had more to work with...
...about Jack (Gary Oldman), a rogue cop with a nice wife (Annabella Sciorra), an eager mistress (Juliette Lewis) and a profitable sideline in helping the Mafia locate apostates who think they've found safety in the witness- protection program. But the Mafia don (a wildly miscast Roy Scheider) has given Jack a sort of promotion: he's entrusted with actually putting the hit on Mona, who, naturally, deploys all her sexual cunning to evade her fate...