Dustin’s the
the Meyerowitz Stories (Cert 15; 112mins)
DO WE always hurt the ones we should love the most? Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories is rooted in Woody Allen territory as a wry portrait of a New York family governed by regrets and resentments.
A twinkling, pitch-perfect Dustin Hoffman portrays patriarch Harold Meyerowitz as just a bit of a handful, exasperating but charming and lovable with it.
Yet as the film deepens and darkens, we come to view Harold as a monster whose relentless self-absorption has taken its toll on his devoted but deeply damaged children. It is 80-year-old Hoffman’s best role in a very long time.
The Meyerowitz Stories largely pulls off the tricky task of being funny and serious in the same breath. Characters parade their neuroses with pride and the mix of deadpan observation and physical comedy is a source of constant chuckles.
When Adam Sandler stars in his own comedies, he comes across as someone you would cross the street to avoid and yet here he is once again proving what a fine, subtle actor he can be. His Danny Meyerowitz is a swirling mass of anger over constant neglect and humiliation at the hands of his father.
His sister Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) shares the same fate and both of them are made to feel second-class citizens compared to Harold’s beloved favourite son Matthew (Ben Stiller). Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder as Matthew tries to retain his sanity by keeping his distance and living in Los Angeles.
Divided into chapters and stories told from the perspective of the individual siblings, the film gradually reveals Harold as unthinkingly cruel and oblivious to the harm he causes. An academic and sculptor, Harold is convinced that his first-class work has never received the recognition it deserves. He is conceited, competitive and possessed of a killer ego. His fourth wife Maureen seems to spend her days in a constant state of inebriation. She is played by Emma Thompson who looks and sounds like a 1980s Mia Farrow, adding to the Woody Allen vibe.
Constantly picking at the scabs of old wounds, The Meyerowitz Stories tackles a range of topics from bitter sibling rivalry to the universal fear of repeating the sins of one’s parents.
Danny plaintively asks his sister Jean why she is so attentive to a father who has only made them feel bad about themselves. “I’m a decent person,” she says. “It’s what you do.”
All the siblings in The Meyerowitz Stories take baby steps towards airing their grievances, healing old wounds and asserting an