This is a dark comedy with some serious undertones about parents and teenage children, social status and self-acceptance. The storyline is woven with comic moments, pain and a hopeful ending. Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher whose real passion in life is writing. Clayton is a writer who can’t seem to get published. His teenage son treats him like dirt and has few redeeming qualities, making parenthood difficult. Clayton dates the high school’s much younger art teacher whose has a problem with commitment. Clayton feels mostly like a loser, his life seems unsatisfying at best. When life throws Clayton a devastating curve he is surprised at the new road now available to him.
The cast is very good overall featuring an excellent, subtle performance by Williams. Fine direction by Bobcat Goldthwait makes the most of the dark comic moments. I found the screenplay lacking at times, although it is a great story in itself. A few of the main characters needed more shading due to the screenplay (not the actors), seeming a bit two dimensional. Robin Williams as the father brings so much to the role of Clayton that he reaches the level the whole movie should have reached.
I’m giving the movie a slightly higher rating than I normally would for Williams performance and the moments of clever writing in the movie. Solid acting and dark comic style makes this a film worth seeing.
2009. Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. Starring Robin Williams, Daryl Sabara, Alexie Gilmore, Henry Simmons, Evan Martin and Geoff Pierson.
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