Parenthood

Serio-comic look at several generations of a typical middle-class American family. Succeeds nicely with terrific ensemble performances!

Serio-comic look at several generations of a typical middle-class American family. Succeeds nicely with terrific ensemble performances!

The Buckman family is a midwestern family all dealing with their lives: estranged relatives, raising children, pressures of the job, and learning to be a good parent and spouse.

A TV Spot for Parenthood.

Gil Buckman (Steve Martin), a neurotic sales executive, is trying to balance a family in suburban St. Louis and his career. He wants to be an active father, rather than the distant workaholic that his own father was. When he finds out that his eldest son, Kevin, has emotional problems and in the opinion of the school psychologist needs therapy, and also that his two younger children, daughter Taylor and youngest son Justin both have minor issues as well, Gil begins to blame himself and deeply question his abilities as a father. In addition his wife Karen (Mary Steenburgen) becomes pregnant with their fourth child, which he is unsure he can handle. He is frustrated and fearful that the financial burdens of another child and office politics at work, which include a manager who is blatantly dishonest and manipulative, are turning him into the detached workaholic he despised his own father Frank (Jason Robards) for being. This comes to a head near the end of the film, when Frank comes to Gil for advice on how to deal with Larry (Tom Hulce) Gil's younger wayward brother and says bluntly that he is asking Gil's advice because he knows Gil always thought he was a lousy father and because he also knows that Gil is a good father. Gil, who has been humbled by his children's issues and his own issues at work, opens up about his self doubts as a parent. Frank tries to reassure him in a casual way by telling him that he worries too much, and the two have a reconciliation of sorts with Frank telling Gil that worry for one's child never ends. Throughout the movie, Gil tries to lighten up more and be less fearful of the surprises he encounters in life and this has a good effect on Kevin, whose emotional problems begin to recede. When a hired cowboy character fails to show up at their birthday party, Gil dresses as a cowboy himself and assumes the role. His sister Helen (Dianne Wiest) is a divorced bank manager and her dentist ex-husband is not involved with thei