Set in Los Angeles in 1968, FAMILY PRAYERS is an earnest, interesting drama about the crack-up of a dysfunctional middle-class Jewish family, told entirely from the point of view of a 13-year-old boy.
Andrew Jacobs (Tzvi Ratner-Stauber) and his six-year-old sister Faye (Julianne Michelle) are increasingly troubled by the arguments between their father Martin (Joe Mantegna) and mother Rita (Anne Archer), which center on Martin's addiction to sports betting with the local bookies and after-work
poker games with garment-factory cohorts and partner Sam (David Margulies). Fed up, Rita throws him out and takes a job. Andrew is in the midst of preparing for his bar mitzvah with a cantor (Allen Garfield), but his concern for his parents has become obsessive and he's begun to isolate himself.
The cantor sends him for tutoring to Dan Linder (Paul Reiser), who finally breaks through to the boy and becomes his friend and mentor. Although he cannot fully understand it, and unable to more than temporarily reunite his parents, Andrew finally realizes he must accept their separation.
FAMILY PRAYERS bears some resemblance to 1980's ORDINARY PEOPLE, with Andrew's tutor taking over the shrink's role and the family's problems revolving around the father, not the mother. The semi-autobiographical screenplay--by former film critic and reporter Steven Ginsberg--is sharply written,
and first-time director Scott Rosenfelt (who with his partner Mark Levinson produced such films as HOME ALONE, EXTREMITIES, and MYSTIC PIZZA), evenly divides his time between the central dilemma and a well-observed delineation of the late-60s period, aided by on-the-mark production design by
Chester Kaczenski. The movie is also a delicately handled coming-of-age story, as young Andrew realizes he can't take responsibility for his parents' lives, only his own. leave a comment
