IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER

US, 2005, 96 minutes, Colour.
Jeremy Sisto, Christopher Jaymes, Matt Keesler, Judy Greer, Nicole Tom, Eric Michael Cole, Monet Mazur, Pat Healy, Christine Larkin, Meadow Sisto, Todd Rulapaugh, Tom Carroll, David Austin.
Directed by Christopher Jaymes.

Praised at many festivals and making contact with the age group of the protagonists of this drama (30 somethings), this film may be something of an ordeal for other audiences, especially older audiences.

A Hollywood personality is dying and has asked one of his three sons to film his death and funeral. The son (who employs a clumsy friend photographer) complies, hoping to gain from his father’s will. His other brothers arrive, one obsessed with his wife and the possibility that she will leave him for another woman, the other a callow type without much integrity. Add to this a number of other friends, their girl-friends and former girl-friends, including a 17 year old, the dying man’s younger mistress and his brother who, years earlier, had married his brother’s wife who had abandoned her family.

They talk and they talk. While much of it is psychodrama and may do some of them some therapeutic good, their chatter tends to be narcissistic and hedonistic, the kind of chatter you would not be wanting to listen in on if you happened to be there in real life.

1.Interest in the film and themes, characters? For younger audiences? For older audiences – who might find the characters, their callow attitudes and language difficult?

2.The work of the writer-director-actor, a personal film? The names of the character as the names of the actors?

3.The one-day structure, the focus on the dying father, his death, preparing for the funeral, the gathering of the guests, the interactions? The making of the film? The truth?

4.The style, the home movies, the filming of filming, the guerrilla style of film-making, at home? Intrusive? Revealing?

5.The title, the focus on the father, his life, his relationship with his children, his relationship with women? His career in Hollywood? Illness, dying, lying exposed? Judy and her grief? The filming? The lack of dignity?

6.Chris and his life, his career, relationship with his father, doing the film, hoping for some recompense in the will? Hopes, his relationships, with Christine, her age? His relationship with his brothers? His reaction to Judy, her presence? His father’s death, the filming, the tensions?

7.Judy, her age, her relationship with the dead father, her arrival back, shopping, the news of the death, her grief? Seclusion? Encountering Matt, the sexual experience? This being revealed? People’s judgment on her?

8.Matt, the older brother, callow? His relationships, sexual addiction, interaction with Judy? His relationship with his father?

9.Jeremy and his intensity, his arrival, his talk about his wife and her relationship, his reaction to the lesbian implications? His moods, tantrums? His taking the drugs, the spending the day with his companion? The final confrontation when his wife arrived, his losing it, his anger?

10.Pat and his relationship with Meadow, talking with Chris, the moods, anticipating her arrival, the reality of his reactions, his petulance, still in love with her?

11.Meadow, her coming with a new friend, his trying to fit in, the past with Pat, Meadow and her calmness, her summing up the situations, her encounters with Christine and trying to help her?

12.Christine, her age, the relationship with Chris, trying to fit in, her being upset, trying to be older than her age, the sexual liaison, her disillusionment, Meadow helping her?

13.Eric, his relationship, the drugs, with Jeremy?

14.Monet’s arrival, the confrontation by Jeremy, the open discussion of her relationships, her insecurities, her anger with Jeremy, leaving?

15.The photographer, Chris’s demands, his trying to film the death, the dead body, the accidents and upsets?

16.The uncle, his callow attitude, the background of his marrying his brother’s wife, the sons and their resentment against him? The other guests, formal, the gathering, its being interrupted, their dispersing?

17.The range of conversation, self-indulgent, tiresome, their drinking, the drugs? The film as a kind of psychodrama and therapy?

18.The will, the film, everybody wanting something, the sons getting nothing, Judy and the bequest?