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It Runs in the Family (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:96
Fresh:27
Rotten:69
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: Despite its gimmick casting, the movie ultimately goes nowhere.
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Some families can survive everything. Even each other. The Grombergs are a highly successful family – except when it comes to communicating with each other. Alex Gromberg (Michael Douglas) is... Some families can survive everything. Even each other. The Grombergs are a highly successful family – except when it comes to communicating with each other. Alex Gromberg (Michael Douglas) is a man caught in the middle. Navigating the tricky, ever-changing roles of father, son, and husband, he’s trying to avoid the mistakes his father made while coming to terms with the ones he’s already passed on to his own sons. Alex’s wife, Rebecca (Bernadette Peters), is a psychologist trying to balance a professional life with her marriage and raising her kids. Mitchell Gromberg (Kirk Douglas), the patriarch and a retired partner of one of New York’s leading law firms, is having difficulty coming to grips with his mortality. Evelyn (Diana Douglas) is his devoted wife and has been his emotional rock throughout their marriage – and the peacemaker between him and Alex. Asher Gromberg (Cameron Douglas), Alex’s eldest son, is a rebellious college student trying to cope with life, love, and sex in a confused society. And Eli (Rory Culkin), Alex’s 11-year old, is perhaps the "oldest" and most levelheaded of all the Gromberg men. Three generations of an American family, they all live separate lives, each in their own dysfunctional way. But every once in awhile, there comes a time to come together – to celebrate, to laugh, to fight, to cry, and to care for each other. Onscreen together for the first time in their careers, Academy Award-winners Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas join real-life relations Cameron Douglas and Diana Douglas, along with Bernadette Peters and Rory Culkin, to tell a story about the loving, frustrating, and ultimately inescapable bonds of family. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Buena Vista International present Michael Douglas and Kirk Douglas in It Runs in the Family, a Furthur Films production of a Fred Schepisi film. Directed by Schepisi and written by Jesse Wigutow, the film also stars Rory Culkin, Cameron Douglas, Diana Douglas, Michelle Monaghan, and Bernadette Peters. Produced by Michael Douglas, It Runs in the Family was executive produced by Schepisi and Kerry Orent, with Marcy Drogin as co-producer and Joel Douglas as associate producer. The production team includes director of photography Ian Baker, production designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein, editor Kate Williams, costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, composer Paul Grabowsky, and music supervisor Susan Jacobs. [More]
Starring: Michael Douglas, Rory Culkin, Diana Douglas, Bernadette Peters
Starring: Michael Douglas, Rory Culkin, Diana Douglas, Bernadette Peters, Kirk Douglas, Cameron Douglas, Michelle Monaghan
Director: Fred Schepisi
Director: Fred Schepisi
Screenwriter: Jesse Wigutow
Producer: Michael Keaton, Michael Douglas
Composer: Paul Grabowsky
Studio: MGM/UA
Reviews for It Runs in the Family
While there are a few touching moments, and it's nice to see this Hollywood power unit perform together, the dialogue is boring and bland.
Bland doesn't even scratch the surface of this mess that makes schmaltz look like Strindberg by comparison.
Overloaded with meandering subplots, greeting-card sentiment and trite filial hangups, It Runs in the Family is as dull and embarrassing as watching someone else's home movies.
Despite rich acting and expert direction, the two grids don't snap neatly together.
Like those family albums you take out of the drawer every so often...a collection of fairly bland scenes that mean a lot more to the people in the picture than anyone else.
It is a relief to report that the Douglas clan acquits itself with charm and dignity. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Jesse Wigutow's pedestrian script, which is formula stuff -- contrived and uneven.
It is impossible to know where the fiction leaves off and real life begins in [the Douglas'] tough-love exchanges, but the result is often electric, especially when the movie is in its darkest places emotionally.
The situations are absurd and melodramatic, the dialog is not believable, and the acting is over-the-top (apparently talent doesn't run in the family - at least not to the third generation).
This sort of message can become unbearably sappy. But It Runs in the Family manages to sidestep the potential overload of cheap sentimentality.
When the same surname keeps appearing during the opening credits, it's usually a bad sign.
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