Actors: Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Rick Moranis, Tom Hulce, Dianne Wiest, Keanu Reeves
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Parenthood
Parenthood is a comedy about parents trying their best to raise normal and well-adjusted kids; what they learn is to loosen up and accept their children's idiosyncracies.
The movie centers on three siblings and their families. Gil is a low-level executive who can't get the promotion he wants because his boss thinks that he's too involved with his family life. He has three kids and worries about them constantly. His older son is especially problematic; he is a nervous child who has difficulty coping with setbacks, whether it be a lost retainer or a missed catch during little league baseball.
Gil has two sisters, Helen and Susan. Helen is divorced and is raising two teenagers on her own; her daughter is in love with a guy who seems to be a dud, and her son is withdrawn, depressed, and obviously in pain over his father's neglect. Susan is married to a man who is anal-retentive; he is attempting to turn their only daughter, who is only four or five, into some kind of child prodigy by constantly feeding her information and teaching her foreign languages.
Parenthood takes all of these situations and handles them with a lot of humor and genuine emotion.
--Esther, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of Parenthood
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Comedy, primarily
Yes
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Kind of comedy
- taking care of zany kids
How much humor v. drama
- Lot of humor, but significant serious drama
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- business executive
Age:
- 20's-30's
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- sensitive
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn curly
Body type
- (woman) very skinny
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
United States
Yes
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- very happy
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- touching of personal anatomy
- impregnation/reproduction
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
