Parenthood (1989)

"Parenthood" effortlessly covers all the trials and tribulations, the successes and the failures, the hopes and the disasters of being a parent in the modern age while also managing to underscore some of the truths about the hardships of being both a child and an adult at the same time. According to this film a man's life is all about having to do things while a woman's life is all about responsibility. Life isn't all swings and roundabouts, it is all roller coasters and roundabouts. The highs and the lows. The good and the bad. The rough and the smooth. A fistful of cliches? It doesn't matter because this film cheerfully wheels them out one by one and dusts them off and successfully manages to refresh them in a very entertaining manner.

Parenthood is a great movie, and has aged well after 30 years have passed. The writing team included the writers who also gave us two other movies I like: City Slickers and Fever Pitch. Parenthood accomplishes in general what the movie Rain Man did for my wife and me. It reminded us of our autistic daughter And made us laugh at stuff that frustrated us in “real life.“ Similarly Parenthood touches upon a lot of hotspots in the parenting experience and helps us laugh at them. Their is a fine Ensemble cast. I particularly like KianU Reeves as Tod, who seems like an inappropriate boyfriend for the daughter but who proves to be valuable in mentoring their disaffected son. There are many memorable situations but one line my wife and I often quote even after all these years occurs when the other son Larry is pushed out of a still moving vehicle by people he owes money to. His father, played straight by Jason Robards, asked who they were. Tod replies that they were just some friends. The memorable line by Robards’ character is, “Friends. Friends slow down; they even stop.” The movie is full of good one-liners, as well as more in-depth sources of humor. You must give it a try if you haven’t seen it and you need a feel good movie. I suspect we will watch it again soon, as we have it on DVD And it has been a while Since we have watched it.