(Spoilers) Steven is a twelve year old with a father, Sid, who fancies himself as an inventor. Most of Sid's inventions are rather ridiculous, like a retractable canopy for a bed, with an "escape hatch" that is just an opening. I assume that Sid's inventions were exaggerated in order to create an image of him as a weird scientist, but his inventions were too trumped up just for effect for me to believe.
Steven's mother is dying of cancer and, between his father's craziness and his mother's illness, Steven decides to run away to live with two of his uncles. Sid is normal compared to the uncles. Uncle Arthur rummages through trash to collect any item he finds interesting. He collects bouncing balls. In one scene Steven opens a closet door only to be engulfed by a couple hundred balls stored there. Think about that, how could that storage be accomplished? Except on a movie set. Steven's uncle Danny is paranoid and is always running from some imaginary pursuer, doing stupid things like entering a house through a window in order to avoid being detected. As Danny, Michael Richards' frenetic antics so irritated me that I almost bailed.
Maury Chaykin, as Arthur, evinces some warmth, and, as Steven, Nathan Watt gives the most natural performance of all the actors. These two performances were about the only positives for me.
Forced zaniness played against a backdrop of terminal cancer is a tricky thing to pull off and this story failed in its attempt. These people were never real enough for me to be engaged.
Steven's mother is dying of cancer and, between his father's craziness and his mother's illness, Steven decides to run away to live with two of his uncles. Sid is normal compared to the uncles. Uncle Arthur rummages through trash to collect any item he finds interesting. He collects bouncing balls. In one scene Steven opens a closet door only to be engulfed by a couple hundred balls stored there. Think about that, how could that storage be accomplished? Except on a movie set. Steven's uncle Danny is paranoid and is always running from some imaginary pursuer, doing stupid things like entering a house through a window in order to avoid being detected. As Danny, Michael Richards' frenetic antics so irritated me that I almost bailed.
Maury Chaykin, as Arthur, evinces some warmth, and, as Steven, Nathan Watt gives the most natural performance of all the actors. These two performances were about the only positives for me.
Forced zaniness played against a backdrop of terminal cancer is a tricky thing to pull off and this story failed in its attempt. These people were never real enough for me to be engaged.