What an experience that was! I gotta tell everyone, I was blown away by this film. It is finally released across the Atlantic for you fans in the U.K., Scotland and Ireland. If you like Jeremy and loved him as Billy from "Six Feet Under", this performance is right up there with that outstanding & great work!
Jeremy plays Jeremy, and he is a lot "saner" than Billy Chenowith could ever hope to be, but Jeremy is part of another wonderfully and maddeningly dysfunctional family in L.A. He and his brothers Christopher (Christopher Jaymes) and Matt (Matt Keeslar) have just lost their Hollywood legend of a father, but never fear, because daddy's legendary selfishness and narcissism live on in his 3 offspring.
What ensues is hilarity and heartache as the 3 kids gather their family & friends together in the mansion and "celebrate" dad's life. There is Meadow (Meadow Sisto) who is their half-sister and also their cousin, Uncle Aled (Tom Caroll) Dad's (equally narcissistic) brother who had an affair with their mom, Pat (Pat Healy) who is Meadow's (ex) boyfriend and one of the highlights of the film, Eric (Eric Michael Cole) Meadow's (new) boyfriend, Nicole (Nicolle Tom) Christopher's (ex) girlfriend, Christine (Christine Lakin) his (new and quite young and ditzy) girlfriend (!), Judy (Judy Greer) Dad's (much younger) lover, and last but not least Monet (Monet Mazur), Jeremy's (sexually confused) wife.
Populated by a tossed salad of complex and facinating, albeit rich, shallow, and selfish, characters, "In Memory of My Father" won't be everyone's kind of film. It's possibly a good choice for those who enjoy ensemble pieces by Robert Altman, such as "Short Cuts", or the aforementioned "Six Feet Under" series, not just because of Jeremy Sisto, but also because of its heavy concentration on characters rather than an action-driven plot, and its frankness in dealing with human emotion.
(Spoiler)
A special treat lies in store between the Jeremy and Eric characters. I always welcome a smoldering kiss to watch on my screen. This particular kiss was so hot that even Eric was swooning, ready to faint.
In an earlier scene, I got a huge laugh from the following lines:
Jeremy: "Do you think Meadow would do it with us? If we asked her?"
Eric: "Yeah...yeah, I'm cool with that!"
It was just so hilariously, pefectly done.
Obviously the Jeremy/Eric story was my favorite in the film, but everything about this film is darn near perfect and I couldn't recommend it highly enough for lovers of indie films and people who are looking for something really different and in search of something really and honestly funny.
Back to IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER
in memory of my father