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Why Him?
Family values put through the wringer BY
A LAN Z ILBERMAN
Christmas is one of the busiest moviegoing days of the year, and not just because many families need a two-hour break from each other. Some of the year’s best, most exciting films come out around the holidays. “Why Him?” is not among them. The comedy from director and co-writer John Hamburg (“I Love You, Man”) exists primarily as counterprogramming for the miserable souls who need a movie when “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Passengers” are sold out. Despite flashes of brilliance, “Why Him?” is perfunctory and boorish, the sort of film that already has begun to fade from memory before you’re too annoyed by it. Bryan Cranston risks typecasting as Ned Fleming, a middleclass Everyman who loves his family and the modest printing company he runs. His daughter, Stephanie (Zoey Deutch), is his jewel, so he is shocked when she announces that she will not be returning home from Stanford University for Christmas. Instead, she suggests that the Flemings fly out to visit her and meet Laird (James Franco), the tech mogul she’s dating. Laird does not make a good first impression, unwittingly talking about his nether regions during a video chat. His Silicon Valley home is bizarre, even vulgar, furnished
FENCES FROM 24
with intrusive gadgets and transgressive nude sculptures. The holiday becomes a battle of wills, as Ned tries to derail Stephanie’s new relationship and Laird attempts to ingratiate himself with the family. Although family and acceptance are themes of the film, “Why Him?” is not for all ages. It easily earns its R rating with a steady stream of obscenities and gross-out gags that make the
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PG-13. Opens Sunday at area theaters. Contains mature thematic elements, obscenity and some sexual references. www.ebook3000.com 139 minutes.
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R. At area theaters. Contains coarse language, nudity, violence and crude humor. 111 minutes.
ALS O PLAYIN G Star ratings are from Post reviews; go to goingoutguide.com/movies for the full-length reviews. Movies not reviewed by The Post are marked “NR.” For showtimes, see the Movie Directory.
dysfunctional family at the holidays has all the right ingredients, but they’re mixed with a heavy hand. (PG-13, 111 minutes, contains comic sexual innuendo, prescription drug abuse and some obscenity. At area theaters.)
THE ACCOUNTANT
Ben Affleck plays a math whiz with a secret life in this intriguing, actionfueled mystery story. (R, 128 minutes, contains strong violence and profanity. At University Mall Theatre.) ALLIED
Crackling chemistry between Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard fails to ignite a soggy ending in this World War II melodrama. (R, 124 minutes, contains violence, coarse language, sensuality, nudity and brief drug use. At Bow Tie Harbour 9.)
ARRIVAL Amy Adams delivers a moving performance as a linguist making contact with alien beings in this sleek, sophisticated and thoughtful sci-fi film from Denis Villeneuve. (PG-13, 116 minutes, contains brief strong obscenity. At area theaters.) COLLATERAL BEAUTY Will Smith stars as a grieving father struggling to cope with the death of his daughter in this tear-jerker. (PG13, 97 minutes, contains brief strong language. At area theaters.)
ALMOST CHRISTMAS
This feel-good comedy about a
MOVIES CONTINUED ON 29
DECEMBER 23, 2016
Those forces come together in the swirling vortex of Troy’s psyche in “Fences,” which takes the measure of its unruly main character, down to the last troublesome inch. Wilson’s writing and Washington’s generous performance allow the audience to revel in Troy’s spiky humor and brusquely delivered home truths, even while wincing at his capacity for self-deception and brutishness. Ringing with ancient wisdom and searing relevance, “Fences” feels as if it’s been crafted for the ages, and for this very minute. Like all timeless personalities, Troy is a man for our era, whether he’s coming at us in full roar or by way of a far more haunting whisper.
burg draws out well beyond the point of coherence. The comic potential of Gustav and Laird’s sparring matches, for instance, deflates faster than a whoopee cushion. Franco and Cranston are seasoned performers, and their antichemistry is kind of admirable. Laird may be forthright and strange, yet he has no idea how he constantly offends Ned, whose attempts at sabotage also demon-
. FRIDAY,
roles that earned each of them a Tony Award for the 2010 Broadway revival of “Fences.”) Other characters come and go, including Troy’s adult son by another marriage, and his brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson), a braininjured war veteran whose perfunctory appearances feel more symbolically convenient than organic. As Gabriel’s name suggests, the specter (or promise) of heavenly reckoning is a constant presence in “Fences,” which among its many virtues gives the lie to this era’s facile condemnations of identity politics. In this surpassingly American story, we see how historical and structural realities inscribe themselves into our most personal traumas and triumphs. The fates and legacies that clash and enmesh themselves throughout “Fences” are just as much products of Oedipal psychology and personal trauma as the Middle Passage and the Great Migration.
humor in “Bad Santa 2” seem tame by comparison. The best comic set pieces all involve understatement: One unreasonably funny scene features Laird’s assistant Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) helping Ned operate a modern Japanese toilet. Few will be immune from the giggles when Ned’s efforts to preserve dignity are interrupted by well-timed toilet noises. Unfortunately, there are also scenes that Ham-
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conjures dramatically competing emotions: One moment we’re sympathizing with him for not getting his shot as a professional baseball player, and the next he’s running down star players by pooh-poohing the Negro Leagues. One moment he embodies the kind of strength and self-reliance for which the American working class is deservedly lionized, the next he’s cruelly stamping out the ambitions of his teenage son Cory (Jovan Adepo), who wants to play football for his high school team. Overseeing Troy’s combustible mix of rage and remorse is his wife Rose, portrayed by Viola Davis in a magnificent performance rooted in stillness, but bursting with passion, life and — when the plot takes a devastating turn — superhuman fortitude and self-sacrifice. (Washington and Davis are reprising
SCOTT GARFIELD/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
For Christmas, Ned (Bryan Cranston), left, travels to California to meet the man he doesn’t want his daughter to marry — Laird (James Franco), a brash tech mogul — in “Why Him?”
strate a keen lack of self-awareness. The strait-laced guy who comes to find that no one respects him isn’t a new comic conceit, yet Cranston has enough skill that we can see the fear that informs his character’s behavior. Still, “Why Him?” has little curiosity about the impulses that drive its characters, relying instead on stale generation-gap humor. Ned’s dying, paper-based company is set up as a foil to Laird’s digital business model. Meanwhile, some viewers’ minds may wander from the plot to such thorny topics as the economics of printed wedding invitations. “Why Him?” ends on a folksy note, in a maudlin affirmation of family values that is both strange and strangely unsatisfying, given the film’s previous violations of good taste. (The most remarkable thing about it is its willingness to offend.) Contemporary comedy fans are likely to roll their eyes at the emotional parts, while more old-fashioned moviegoers may wonder what’s so funny about an aquarium filled with moose urine. When it comes to family entertainment options, board game night at home is looking better and better.