Writer-director Christopher Jaymes' bracingly original "In Memory of My Father" opens with a cruel-funny deathbed scene and never looks back. The terrific cast -- featuring pitch-perfect work by Jeremy Sisto, Judy Greer and Matt Keeslar -- plunges straight into a roundelay of neuroses, drugs, booze,
sex and scream therapy, dishing out dialogue that is full of biting wit and sounds like people talking rather than characters delivering themes. In deceptively offhand, cosmic-joke fashion, Jaymes and company have created a smart portrait of the contemporary walking wounded.
Jaymes plays Chris, reluctant videographer of his father's death and the ensuing wake-cum-cocktail party. The dying man (David Austin), a one-time Hollywood producer, "bribed" his youngest son to make the film, which Chris approaches at first with a certain macabre glee. But soon Chris and "In Memory" itself turn their focus from the filmmaking device to the foolishness and drama unfolding as family and friends gather to mark the passing. With psychodramas and coping strategies in full blast, mourning seems the last thing on anyone's mind. But Jaymes' sly script explores the legacy of the egocentric, oft-married deceased in the angry, bruised hopefulness of the three sons he had late in life.
Like his two older brothers, Jeremy (Sisto) and Matt (Keeslar), Chris has a history of relationship problems. As he sort of pursues a 17-year-old (Christine Lakin), he is still captivated by his ebullient blond ex, Nicole (Nicholle Tom). Matt, meanwhile, determined to continue his record four-month streak of fidelity to his girlfriend, opts for a different sort of resolve when he shares a joint on his father's deathbed (the coroner hasn't yet been called) with the dead man's last girlfriend, 26-year-old shopaholic Judy (Greer).
Jeremy, distraught over his possibly lesbian wife (Monet Mazur), seeks counsel -- and Ecstasy -- from New Age searcher Eric (Eric Michael Cole, Jaymes' co-producer and co-editor). Weaving their way through the party, the two bathrobe-clad E-trippers are a riot of indecision and tentative emotion. The setting, a mansion that was Austin's home at the time of filming and once belonged to Samuel Goldwyn, is a striking character in its own right.
Back to IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER
in memory of my father