WHY HIM?

US, 2016, 111 minutes, Colour.
James Franco, Bryan Cranston, Zoe Deutch, Megan Mullaly, Griffin Gluck, Zach Pearlman, Cedric the Entertainer, Keegan- Michael Key, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley.
Directed by John Hamburg.

Many audiences have seen Meet the Fokkers and its sequels, so are familiar with that question from an ultra-serious father about the young man his beloved daughter has chosen to marry: Why Him? This film is very much in the same vein, although Bryan Cranston, moving away from his successful television career in Breaking Bad, has chosen a variety of film roles including LBJ in All The Way, an undercover DEA Agent in The Infiltrator and now a touch of comedy in Why Him?

Yes, this is one of those raucous American comedies with touches of the crass and the crude. However, unlike so many of the others, this one has its heart in the right place so that underneath the crudity, or despite it, there is a lot that audiences can identify with.

It doesn’t exactly open that way with dad celebrating his 55th birthday and a Skype connection to his daughter, Stephanie (Zoe Deutch), away at college, wishing him well – only that her fiance arrives, oblivious of what is happening, slips off his trousers, leading to a very much in your face bottom sequence, to the shock of all. When the daughter invites her family out from Michigan to California to meet her fiance, dad is shocked - but is persuaded to go.

The prospective son-in-law is played in very good spirits by James Franco, rather ubiquitous on the screen in so many films in recent years. There is a very good line in the film which explains him – Stephanie says to her family that he, Laird, has no filter. Whatever he thinks and feels, he says, taking the extrovert philosophy: how do I know what I think until I’ve said it? And he has absorbed a four letter vocabulary and beyond which he blurts out, despite advice to the contrary, because in terms of his language, his feelings, his thoughts, he has no filter.

In fact, although he is in his 30s, he is really still a child. He was something of a child genius, especially in terms of technology, a whiz at maths, creative with computers, an expert in computer games. So, he is really a man-child. But, he is absolutely honest and direct, and is generous to a fault (and there are many of those because not only does he not have a filter, he has no sense of appropriate timing). He means absolutely well but does not achieve absolutely well.

So, it is a shock when dad and mum (Megan Mullaly perhaps not immediately recognisable outside the context of Will and Grace) and their 15-year-old son have quite an experience in California, the son immediately identifying with Laird (in too many ways).

Laird is absolutely determined to marry but wants his prospective father-in-law’s blessing. No matter how unlikely that seems at the beginning, we are sure that it will be granted at the end.

Another complication which gives the film a bit more substance is that like the other Christmas raucous comedy, Office Christmas Party, the background is decline in business in companies, possibilities for retrenching, even more possibilities for takeover – especially since the business in this case is the manufacture of paper in a growing paperless age period

Yes, there is some raucous comedy, especially a very long toilet sequence, a paperless toilet where the technology is not functioning and Laird’s surprising majordomo (Keegan- Michael Key) has to try to fix it to dad’s embarrassment. What might seem a long interlude actually becomes a significant plot point by the end of the film!

So, a lot of comedy – even with the majordomo setting on Laird in all kinds of circumstances, very much like Cato and Inspector Clouseau which dad points out, though the two have never heard of the Pink Panther!

And, for a climax, Laird helicopters Stephanie back to Michigan to propose and to celebrate Christmas and, because the parents have had a great devotion to Kiss, what about Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, with all their Kiss make up, garish and threatening as it is, emerging from a helicopter and singing We Three Kings!

And, all goes well for the future, relationships, peace, and manufacturing prosperity.

1. A raucous comedy? With point?

2. The US, about family, parents, relationships? Business, success and failure? The future?

3. The variety of the cast? Comic talent?

4. Michigan, the manufacturing of paper business, the Christmas season, the snow? The family, the house, outside the house, the scene for a final proposal? The musical score?

5. Contrast with California, the countryside and scenery, the lavish home, the grounds, the zoo, interiors, lavish, the variety of rooms? Computer games?

6. The situation: Stephanie and Laird, the phone call, the birthday party, Laird and his stripping, buttocks, in full view, the family and reaction?

7. Ned, in himself, the party, reaction to the call? At work? Stern? Barb, his wife? The son, age 15? Lou, the range of workers, their loyalty? The financial situation? Ned keeping quiet? The invitation, Lou persuading him to go?

8. California, the car, the maitre d’, the range of staff, the young interns, the impact?

9. James Franco as Laird, a man-child, his appearance, the tattoos, his relationship with Stephanie, his reaction to the family, Stephanie saying that he had no filter on his language, thoughts? Blunt, obnoxious but endearing, trying to be nice, blurting things at the wrong time? Showing the family over the house, expecting them to stay, the bedroom, the bowling room?

10. The truth about Stephanie, at college, her relationship with Laird, not revealing it to her family? The truth about the Foundation, her going to work on it, not telling her parents?

11. The son, 15, knowledge of games, admiring Laird, influenced by him, the language, bonding, enjoying stay, blunt, his parents?

12. The maitre d’, Gustav, European background, his comprehensive career, retired to work with Laird, his advice, his leaping out to test Laird and his martial arts? And the two not knowing about Cato and the Pink Panther and Inspector Clouseau?

13. Justine, Kaley Cuoco and, her voice? Her always intervening, intruding, dialogue with Ned? Even travelling to Michigan?

14. The toilet sequence, no paper, Ned and his being stranded, his wife’s reaction, the maitre d’, Justine’s advice? Fixing the situation? The later making this part of the plot and the son and his intuition, manufacturing toilets?

15. The bowling alley, Need and the temptation, enjoying it?

16. The bedroom, vast, Ned and Barb, their discussions?

17. The zoo, the animals, Laird and his attention, going for walks, with Ned and the discussions, with Barb?

18. The party, the guests, the reactions? Barb and the drugs, her amorous reactions? Ned trying to calm her?

19. Technical difficulties, fixing them? The role of Kevin? His curiosity? Ned, the contact with Lou, wanting to find out more and more about Laird and his accounts? The computer, the files? The irony of Ned’s accusations and Laird not having money – and the revelation about his personal wealth? And his buying Ned’s company?

20. Laird asking Ned for permission to propose, old-fashioned? Ned refusing – and the audience knowing that all would change?

21. Stephanie, refusing, wanting more time? Her parents going home?

22. The world of Michigan, cold, the helicopter, Laird and his meagre clothes, asking Ned about the proposal, nervous, Stephanie and the blindfold, discovery she was home? The proposal?

23. The helicopter, Kiss arriving, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the make up? Their songs? And their singing the Christmas Carol?

24. The idea, the toilets, the staff happy, Lou and his wife? Laird and his collaboration – and everybody prosperous?