There’s something deeply false at the heart of this would-be tear-inducing engine. Retired factory worker Frank (Robert De Niro) is adapting to life as a widower by trying to connect with his kids. They’ve all gone on to apparent success – a painter living in New York City, an ad exec in Chicago, an actress in Las Vegas, a classical musician in Denver. When they all cancel a planned weekend visit, Frank decides to surprise them all by dropping in unannounced and discovers his kids have been shielding him from the truth about them for years.

But amid all the “Cat’s in the Cradle” sentiment being hurled about, there’s no coherence to this portrait of a family. Frank’s artistic aspirations for his kids don’t seem to be matched by any interest in the arts. The script paints him as more of a tough father who bossed his kids around and let his wife do the emotional support part of parenting. It’s possible he’s both art lover and bully, but this script doesn’t do the work to make us buy it. And underpinning the film’s limited emotional impact is a hoked-up secret that is gradually revealed in an extended narrative striptease. The emotional payoff feels lazy and dishonest, derived from a need for closure rather than any real insight. Jones knows the emotion he wants from us, but he’s a bit vague on the details that would earn it.

Hank Sartin

From Time Out Chicago

Dir Kirk Jones, Category IIA, 100 mins, opens Thursday 21