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Meet the Parents (2000) Starring Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro, Teri Polo, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner, James Rebhorn, Nicole Dehuff, Thomas McCarthy, Judah Friedlander, Spencer Breslin, Jon Abrahams.

Directed by Jay Roach.

Running Time: 108 Minutes.

Rating: PG (Sexual Content, Drug References and Language)

"Good one, Focker!"

Jack Byrnes (DeNiro) spent 34 years as an interogator for the Central Intelligence Agency. His career in that milieu fostered a chronic mistrust of people he does not yet know.

This provides a less than ideal situation for Greg Focker, the young man whom Pam Byrnes (Polo), Jack's eldest daughter has decided to take home to meet her parents on the weekend her sister Deborah (Dehuff) is to be married.

Jack takes a quick dislike to Greg automatically thinking the worst of him. Greg, who doesn't respond well to pressure makes things even worse for himself as he twitches under Jack's intense scrutiny and tries a little too hard to win him over.

Then circumstances cruelly seem to conspire to place Greg firmly in the least flattering light imaginable. Pam's younger sister Deborah is marrying a second-generation doctor (McCarthy) and Greg is revealed to be a male nurse drawing almost constant ridicule from Jack who still can't get over Greg's last name.

They visit Pam's ex-boyfriend (Wilson), a wealthy stockbroker who asks Greg how his portfolio is doing. As a healthcare worker Greg likely has no portfolio or at very least not one of note.

A chorus of disapproval grows amongst the Byrnes family and their friends as Greg's numerous embarrassing faux pas begin to mount. This culminates in the revelation of a dastardly deed Greg has committed involving the beloved family cat (who not surprisingly doesn't like Greg either) and the unveiling of Greg's full legal name - Gaylord Focker.

Every prospective son in law is nervous about making a good impression upon his would be in-laws just as any reasonable father of a grown daughter wants to be sure she isn't marrying some kind of monster. This film taps in to those kinds of anxieties and draws a great deal of humour from them. Your typical guy will be able to relate to Greg's frustration and if he is a little older will see something of Jack's point as well.

Meet the Parents is a hundred different kinds of funny from beginning to end and you have to see the film more than once to catch all of the very subtle jokes. When you miss hearing a joke because you are laughing too loudly at the last one that is a good sign when it comes to comedy. I crack up at the mere thought of certain scenes in this film having seen it multiple times.

Notes:

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song (A Fool in Love by Randy Newman).

Jim Carrey was forced to turn down the role of Greg due to scheduling conflicts after he had come up with the basic idea for the film during conversations with director Steven Spielberg who also had to pass on the project.

One of the very few films in the brief career of very promising young actress Nicole Dehuff who died tragically at the age of 30, 5 years after this film was completed.

Learn more about this author, Jason Daniel Baker.
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