This is quite the period piece - Jeff Daniels plays the "hero" role and he is an incredible a**hole - he jumps every woman he crosses paths with, mostly married - altho he has two kids he has neglected per a divorce in process - and it's all OK because the editor had overlaid (no pun intended) all his dalliances with cute-sey 1980's style romantic music.
And Daniels exacerbates the effect by, for some reason, choosing to "act" the part by constantly erupting into screaming fits at the top of his voice like a spoiled 13 year old in every situation in which the character is slotted to express frustration at his existential dilemmas.
John Mahoney plays the Jeff Daniel's character's lout of drunken father - but he's oh so witty, so that that's OK too. And he does a lot of excessive cursing - Mahoney's facile analog to Daniels' screaming fits - and is the best arm-wrestler at the local prototypically small town, oh so friendly & wholesome, local drunks' bar/poolhall and has a vintage Cadillac in his garage - oh wow, emotionally abusive to wife (played by Cloris Leachman who gives the only noteworthy performance in this debacle), but has vintage car, it's all OK then.
Worst part is there is then a "mentoring" scene at the local bar where father and grandfather drunkenly encourage teenage grandson to follow in their paths. It's quite sickening to think the writers and director thought this was the comical scene.
Of course the other supporting cast married guys who are faithful to their marriages are chumps or orgres.
Really don't know what the value schema of this thing is - but it's dated and pretty repulsive by any normal measure.
Oh well.
And Daniels exacerbates the effect by, for some reason, choosing to "act" the part by constantly erupting into screaming fits at the top of his voice like a spoiled 13 year old in every situation in which the character is slotted to express frustration at his existential dilemmas.
John Mahoney plays the Jeff Daniel's character's lout of drunken father - but he's oh so witty, so that that's OK too. And he does a lot of excessive cursing - Mahoney's facile analog to Daniels' screaming fits - and is the best arm-wrestler at the local prototypically small town, oh so friendly & wholesome, local drunks' bar/poolhall and has a vintage Cadillac in his garage - oh wow, emotionally abusive to wife (played by Cloris Leachman who gives the only noteworthy performance in this debacle), but has vintage car, it's all OK then.
Worst part is there is then a "mentoring" scene at the local bar where father and grandfather drunkenly encourage teenage grandson to follow in their paths. It's quite sickening to think the writers and director thought this was the comical scene.
Of course the other supporting cast married guys who are faithful to their marriages are chumps or orgres.
Really don't know what the value schema of this thing is - but it's dated and pretty repulsive by any normal measure.
Oh well.