Review: The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
"I'm not fitting!" Danny Meyerowitz (Adam Sandler) yells early on in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). He's talking about trying to park a car, but he may as well be stating the mantra for nearly all of the characters in Noah Baumbach's latest work. As its title implies, this portrait of family dysfunction is a series of episodic stories that amble along in a generally amiable manner, but is fuelled by currents of anger, bitterness and jealousy.
Danny is the eldest son of Harold (Dustin Hoffman), a New York sculptor who has achieved a relative amount of success, though he firmly believes he should be more glorified by the art world than he currently is. Harold is in the midst of his fourth marriage to the hippy-dippy Maureen (a delightful Emma Thompson), whom he insists has given up drinking though much evidence suggests the contrary. Danny and his sister Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) have been living in the shadow of their much favoured younger brother Matthew (Ben Stiller), whom Harold has turned to to help sell the family's New York apartment as well as his life's work.
In contrast to the hobbling and unkempt Danny and Jean, who is so withdrawn she practically blends into the furnishings, Matthew appears shiny and new, tanned by the L.A. sunshine and so constantly busy wheeling and dealing that he barely has time for his wife and child. Matthew may be the most financially successful of his half-siblings, but he is just as weighed down by having to deal with his frustratingly self-absorbed father. Baumbach's screenplay is a marvel of walled-in dialogue - not only does everyone seem to be talking at or around each other, but they also feel like they're conducting completely separate conversations.
A health scare concerning Harold conspires to bring the clan all together, and this is where The Meyerowitz Stories truly finds its groove as the half-siblings find common ground as they grapple with long-held resentments (a comically executed fight between Danny and Matthew also helps release the brothers' tsuris). Compared to Baumbach's earlier work, the film is a mildly caustic affair with a smattering of insights that are made less predictable by the cast, all of whom offer sterling performances. Grace Van Patten is luminous as Danny's daughter, Candice Bergen equally so in her single scene as Matthew's mother, and Marvel etches a striking portrait of a woman who has spent her life mostly ignored. It should be mentioned that, unlike his previous films, the women here are not as richly written or as well-integrated into the narrative.
Indeed, Baumbach lavishes his attention on the Meyerowitz men and his leading trio of actors more than rise to the occasion. Hoffman is outstanding as the irascible patriarch and Sandler displays what a very fine actor he can be when his comic crutches are taken away from him. Stiller arguably delivers one of the best performances of his career - the range of emotions that pass through Stiller's face as Matthew talks with the weakened Harold in the hospital is simply stunning. Hell may be other people, as Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote, and family may be the greatest hell of all but as Danny and his daughter sing in the film's most moving scene, "There's always you, there's always me, there's always us."
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Written by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Elizabeth Marvel, Grace Van Patten, Candice Bergen, Rebecca Miller, Judd Hirsch, Adam Driver, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Chernus
