Maniscalco and De Niro click in "About My Father" but big physical gags do not land

About My Father (2023)

Following in the recent trend of stand-up comedians headlining their own movies, Sebastian Maniscalco gets “About My Father,” a comedy loosely based on his real-life father, here played by Robert De Niro as a stubbornly traditional Sicilian immigrant. Usually, when De Niro says yes to a lark, it’s terrible, but “About My Father” is kind of sweet and fitfully amusing. It's still not great, but thankfully, it’s a little more “Meet the Parents” than the equally noxious “Dirty Grandpa” and “The War with Grandpa.”

Maniscalco co-wrote the script (with Austen Earl) and plays a version of himself named Sebastian Maniscalco, who never stops yapping in often-needless voice-over. Here, he’s a Chicago hotelier in a serious relationship with his artist girlfriend Ellie (an impressively energetic Leslie Bibb). When her coddling, conservative parents (David Rasche and Kim Cattrall) invite them to their summer place for the Fourth of July weekend, Sebastian sees it as an opportunity to propose to Ellie. The only catch is that he wants his grandmother’s ring, and in order to get it, Sebastian’s father Salvo (De Niro), a hairstylist and salon owner, needs to meet Ellie’s parents first. So guess who’s coming along? Will hysterical comic hijinks ensue? At times.

It’s all of director Laura Terruso’s big, dumb, oh-so-wacky physical gags that intermittently stop the movie dead in its tracks. Like a much lamer “Meet the Fockers,” it’s these labored moments that should escalate tension between a working-class family and an affluent one. But between a swimsuit malfunction on a flyboard and Salvo cooking up Ellie’s family’s pet peacock for dinner, unbeknownst to them as they lick their chops, these mildly lowbrow set-pieces just don’t land. Part of the problem is that Ellie’s family members are the ones who get to be broad, as if stuck in a “Wedding Crashers”-style mold. David Rasche and Kim Cattrall each have their moments as WASPy parents Bill and Tigger Collins, the CEO of a luxury hotel and a U.S. senator, respectively; they showboat their wealth but aren't completely hemmed in as caricatured monsters. But then Ellie’s older brother Lucky (Anders Holm, too good at being obnoxious) is a supreme douche who has never left the frat house and can never pass a drug test. Their youngest sibling, Dougie (Brett Dier), is an awkward New Age spiritual healer who likes to overshare about his bowel movements after the miracles of kombucha and may or may not have a girlfriend from Africa. Before the weekend is over, one wishes Sebastian, Ellie, and Salvo would just get out of this Stepford nightmare (Ellie even calls it an "Italian 'Get Out'").

Sebastian Maniscalco is an expressive and very funny comedian who can tell an engaging story, make it relatable in spite of the Italian-American specificity, and nail a punch line. On the big screen, he’s as much of a likable and animated screen presence as he is on stage, but one wishes his break into movies was just as entertaining as one of his Netflix specials. When he and Robert De Niro are together, just chatting, or mocking country clubbers on the tennis courts, or spritzing cologne and walking through the mist together, they have a comfortable back-and-forth. Their scenes seem to be the real reason Maniscalco made the movie in the first place, and De Niro is actually spry and funnier here than he’s been in a while for playing yet another widower in a comedy. Maniscalco seems to have enough personality and enough stories to tell that it’s a shame “About My Father” is the star vehicle that’s supposed to expand upon his stand-up appeal. The family-is-everything sentiments make it innocuous enough, but a Maniscalco-De Niro comedy should be better than not-bad, not-good, just middle-of-the-road. Forget about it.

Grade: C

Lionsgate released “About My Father” (89 min.) in theaters on May 26, 2023.