Continuing with the mildly entertaining movies, next on the schedule is the Father of Invention. Although the poster and Kevin Spacey were promising, the movie turned out to be just average. Being a great fan of infomercials, I expected much more from this type of premise. Perhaps a more complex plot and deeper characters, not some Hallmark family crap. Granted, right up until the very end, the movie was relatively good. However, they finished it with a meh instead of a bang. I really don’t know what I expected from this mainstream dramedy. Perhaps I was expecting another American Beauty. Mostly because of Spacey and that father-daughter relationship.
He’s one of the main reasons why you should check out this movie, giving another stellar performance. And keep in mind that he was working with a relatively weak script. If you’re looking for similar movies, I recommend you check out King of California. It’s a better-constructed movie, starring Michael Douglas and Evan Rachel Wood. With a very breezy and lighthearted atmosphere and pacing, Father of Invention is really easy to follow. And digest. If you decide to go with the flow, it may even surprise you with some funny twists. I feel like it was written by someone living in California and pretty removed from the real world.
Robert Axle, a famous infomercial TV presenter and inventor is just released from prison. He served an eight-year sentence for the malfunction of one of his devices. Apparently his ab-cruncher, apart from crunching abs also crunches fingers. With no money and no place to crash he moves in with his daughter. However, that’s just temporary, until he discovers his next invention.
As you might have guessed from the title, this is a movie about inventions. While they are not a big part of the plot, they were hilarious, riffing off the usual crap you see advertised on the television. Although, since we’re living in the digital age, now you see these strange things claiming amazing effects as ads on the Internet. There were at least a dozen jokes about these contraptions and people who used them. They passed on all of them. This is a shame since this could be a great dark humor comedy. Instead, we got the usual quirky redemption story. Finally, I found it really surprising that the guy who did something wrong in the corporate world actually went to jail. Not to mention the whole starting over in Family Mart thing. However, if you like quirky indie comedies this one could be fun. Enjoy.
Director: Trent Cooper
Writers: Jonathan D. Krane, Trent Cooper
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Camilla Belle, Heather Graham, Johnny Knoxville, Virginia Madsen, Craig Robinson
Fun Facts: Budget was $11.5 million.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1381505/
