“About My Father” Review
Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro star as a father and son duo roaming the wilds of the top one percent in “About My Father,” a comedy based on Maniscalco’s relationship with his own father.
With a film like “About My Father,” your enjoyment is going to depend on how much you like the humor of Sebastian Maniscalco and the idea of him having Robert De Niro as his father. If this sounds appealing, then I think you’ll have a reasonably good time like I did. “About My Father” might not be a game changing comedy but it does have enough going for it to be a fun viewing experience.
Based on Sebastian Maniscalco’s relationship with his father, the film has the popular comedian playing himself. However, in this semi-fictional portrayal, Maniscalco is a hotel manager who wants to propose to his artist girlfriend Ellie (Leslie Bibb). When Ellie’s family invites the both of them to their summer home for the Fourth of July weekend, he thinks that this might be the perfect opportunity to ask Ellie the big question. The only hiccup is that Sebastian has to bring along his father Salvo (Robert De Niro) along for the ride resulting in hijinks from the Italian duo.
Going into this film I was a bit apprehensive to see Sebastian Maniscalco and Robert De Niro in a movie together. After all, the last time these two were on a film set, De Niro shot Maniscalco in the back multiple times with two revolvers. Of course, that was in “The Irishman” where Maniscalco and De Niro played “Crazy” Joe Gallo and Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, Gallo’s alleged assassin, respectively. All jokes aside, the chemistry that these two share is what makes this film so enjoyable.
Not only do you completely buy these two as father and son, but they have a natural comedic rapport that adds substance to the film. Maniscalco, who cowrote the film’s screenplay, draws from his personal life for a relatively entertaining story of a father and son trying to stay close despite Sebastian wanting to move on with his life and devote himself entirely to Ellie.
As Maniscalco’s father, Robert De Niro injects as much of his silly personality into this entertaining performance. While De Niro is one of the best dramatic actors of all time, he does have strong comedic energy when he’s not playing psychotic taxi drivers or gangsters. Much like “Meet The Parents,” De Niro is somewhat of an obstacle for the main character. As much as Salvo loves his son, he’s not sure that Ellie is the right fit and wants to be sure that this relationship is good enough for him to give Sebastian a precious family ring for the proposal.
“About My Father’s” humor is largely dependent on these two working-class guys being surrounded by so much luxury and being bewildered by it as well as having their traditionally Italian ways clash with this wealthy East Coast mentality. When the humor is focused on De Niro and Maniscalco, the film works well. However, despite a supporting cast with the likes of Kim Cattrall, Anders Holm and David Rasche, most of the humor centered on Ellie’s family falls flat. “About My Father” also has unnecessary voice-over narration delivered by Maniscalco that rarely gets a laugh and just feels pointless.
While “About My Father” does feel by-the-numbers at times, its heart is strong and the film’s main relationship is effective. There was a point where De Niro got me a bit teary-eyed which does say something about how well he and Maniscalco relate to each other. As far as comedies go, this isn’t phenomenal but it still has more than enough value to warrant seeing it.
