The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008)

Synopsis: Written and directed by Patrick Sisam, The Year of Getting to Know Us is a darkly comic exploration of the classic dysfunctional-family dynamic, focusing on the commitment-phobic Christopher Rocket (played with delightful subtlety by Jimmy Fallon). Rocket escaped his sheltered life as... Written and directed by Patrick Sisam, The Year of Getting to Know Us is a darkly comic exploration of the classic dysfunctional-family dynamic, focusing on the commitment-phobic Christopher Rocket (played with delightful subtlety by Jimmy Fallon). Rocket escaped his sheltered life as the only child of a golf-obsessed father and eccentric mother in Florida to become a successful freelance writer in New York. His apprehension about taking his relationship with his beautiful and intelligent girlfriend, Anne, to the next level makes it painfully obvious that he has some childhood issues to reconcile. When his estranged father suffers a stroke on the golf course, Christopher returns to the Sunshine State to reconnect with the man whom he never really knew as a child--a task that is made easier by the fact that his father's ailing health has put him in a vegetative state of disconnection. Deftly moving back and forth between Christopher's less-than-normal '70s childhood and present-day adulthood to elucidate his inability to engage with others, Sisam paints a cinematic portrait that eschews the traditional narrative structure and tells an infinitely relatable story. The Year of Getting to Know Us is a quirky exploration of how the people in our lives make us who we are. -- © Sundance Film Festival [More]