Meet The Fockers
It’s an extremely rare occurrence when a rather mediocre comedy can (given its successful box office returns) be used to set up (perhaps unintentionally) a sequel that (since the actual character dynamics were all set up in Part 1) turns out to be a surprisingly funny and hilarious effort that becomes practically a standalone comedy classic in its own right. But alas, that turns out to be the case here as Part 1 in the series (2000’s Meet The Parents) was at times an awkwardly painful display in the comedy of utter embarrassment which saw Ben Stiller being mentally tortured for most of its running time by his potential father in law Robert DeNiro, a concept that only occasionally scored points in the humor department due mostly to DeNiro’s Jack Byrnes being a rigid, unyielding prick with a CIA background who spent almost the entire movie taking verbal cheap shots at Stiller’s Greg Focker due mostly to the fact that Focker was a goofy male nurse and in many ways judged to not be masculine nor driven enough to marry his little girl. But at its worse, the film was rather puerile in its approach, showing Stiller literally being trapped on DeNiro’s home turf surrounded by his other elitist family and friends who would take great joy in ganging up on Stiller (essentially an easygoing nice guy who clearly didn’t deserve it) with the even worse subtext being that the abuse which Stiller endured was due possibly to him being a Jew in an environment filled with non Jews. Regardless, there had to be an answer for all of this humiliating treatment (once again as dictated by the box office) with the film’s final scenes (after come hell or high water Stiller had won DeNiro’s approval and permission to marry his daughter) even hinting that DeNiro and his wife (Blythe Danner) were going to be meeting Stiller’s parents quite soon which brings us to this 2004 sequel, a rowdy farce where in many ways the main selling point was going to be in seeing DeNiro’s Jack finally getting a (very strong) dose of his own medicine when it came to the belated showdown / meeting with the parents of Stiller’s Greg (a.k.a. Gaylord). And to that end director Jay Roach and the casting department would overextend themselves to the max, bringing in legends Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand (who along with DeNiro have 6 Oscar wins amongst the three of them) as Bernie and Roz Focker, a very eccentrically Jewish (and very liberal) couple who welcome DeNiro, their son, DeNiro’s wife and Stiller’s fiancée Pam (Teri Polo) with open arms along with feline family pet Mr. Jinx and even a baby grandson (said to be the kid of the daughter who was married in the first film who is supposedly in Thailand when in reality the actress had died young from pneumonia). Hoffman in particular seemed revved up and ready to go from the first second he appears onscreen with a penchant for engaging in topics of conversation that are beyond inappropriate (at least from DeNiro’s point of view) while Streisand is a crazed yenta type here, ostensibly a sex therapist for senior citizens who is quite open in talking about sex in casual conversation. The film opens almost exactly as the original did with Stiller and Polo packing up their stuff en route to scooping DeNiro and Danner in upstate New York before heading for the Focker estate down in Florida and the movie takes great pains in showing just how smooth and easy everything is turning out for Stiller this time around as opposed to his tortured from day one existence in the first film. Upon arriving at DeNiro’s house, we learn that the useless character of his teenage son from the original has been shipped off to military school (thank god) and DeNiro himself has almost become an obsessive mentor figure to his dumped off grandson, even going so far as to strap on his chest a fake breast for breastfeeding so as not to have the kid get confused (thankfully the actual administering of breastmilk from DeNiro to the child is not portrayed onscreen) which sadly is in place to give DeNiro another sidekick / foil like he had with Jinks in Part 1 (whereas Jinks is still here but is given a much less prominent role). Upon piling everybody into a super giant RV and heading down to Florida, that’s where the real meat and bones of the movie come into play with Hoffman’s brilliantly insane ex lawyer / hippie / non conformist clashing early and often with DeNiro’s uptight asshole. DeNiro’s proclamations of what’s wrong with what he is seeing is more often than not met with beals of laughter from Hoffman and Streisand, two hedonists who if nothing else are not afraid to enjoy life and everything that comes with it as Stiller’s role in all of this is to both play the referee and also occasionally squirm from something embarrassing coming out of his mom and dad’s mouths, all while they mock him privately for always kissing DeNiro’s ass when they can both see him quite clearly for the asshole that he is (although to be fair it is made obvious that they have long ago met Polo and consider her to be a wonderful fit for their son). The main point of philosophical contention between DeNiro and Hoffman is in DeNiro’s belief of instilling a competitive drive into both yourself and your children whereas Hoffman believes that enjoying life and allowing your children to develop themselves at their own pace while always letting you know how much you love them is the best way to go (this contrast of ideas in raising children is some fairly intellectual subtext in its own right). All of this comes to a head when The Fockers’ former housekeeper (Alanna Ubach) comes to visit only for Hoffman’s Bernie to loudly brag in front of DeNiro and the others about how his beloved son had lost his virginity to that very same housekeeper when he was 19, bringing up the movie’s central yet very funny conflict when DeNiro discovers that the housekeeper has a 15 year old son whom he suspects to be Stiller’s. What makes it so damn funny is that the kid (Ray Santiago) practically steals the movie with his spot on Stiller impersonation, a turn that comes so eerily close to the real thing that upon a chance meeting with DeNiro (keeping in mind that the kid has never met Stiller himself), it drives DeNiro so batshit crazy that he endeavors to do everything he can to obtain DNA from both of them so that he can prove it to be true and do everything he can to once again prove that Stiller is “unworthy” of marrying into his family (also mostly to stick it to Hoffman as well this time). And that’s the entire point here, that DeNiro is acting in such a way that ultimately his own wife and daughter think that he’s finally lost his mind, prompting them to (finally!) stand up to him and call him out on his crazed, paranoid behavior. It also helps matters that Streisand (who seems to have a sixth sense about such things) takes it upon herself to try and help DeNiro and his wife with their sex life (or lack thereof) since she rightfully detects that DeNiro being “in denial” about everything is probably due to his lack of any real activity between him and his wife in the bedroom. To see DeNiro’s Jack Byrnes finally get his comeuppance that he never got in Part 1 would be the very real selling point here if not for the fact that we also get to see Dustin Hoffman (just as much of an acting legend as DeNiro is, if not more so) firing on all cylinders and completely cutting fast and loose with his over the top Bernie Focker and having the highlight of the entire series being a backyard game of pickup football with Stiller serving as quarterback and the two legends playing in laws having at it in such a way that can best be described as showstopping. Streisand (admittedly one of the more overrated entertainers of the 20th century) comfortably slides into what amounts to being a fun character acting role, making no effort to steal anyone else’s thunder nor should she. The other returning regulars (Danner, Polo, and a cameoing Owen Wilson) hold up their ends just fine without really evoking any of the negative aspects of the first movie. And the final result that sees Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman having at each other in a comedic free for all with Ben Stiller only having to endure a fraction of the abuse that he absorbed in the original adds up to being a sequel that bypasses its predecessor in terms of both being hilarious and even a little bit touching…
8/10