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Steve Tobias (Michael Douglas) is a deep-cover CIA agent who struggles to be a good father to
his son, Mark (Ryan Reynolds), amidst the demands of his work. Determined to do right at dinner with his son's future in-laws, podiatrist Jerry Peyser (Albert Brooks)
and his wife, Katherine (Maria Ricossa), Steve inevitably arrives late and makes a poor impression. Mark's bride-to-be, Melissa, attempts to make the best of things, but the
situation gets even worse when Jerry happens upon Steve going on a fight with a gunman in the restaurant bathroom. Jerry calls off the wedding of her daughter. Steve tries to
apologize to Jerry but he ends up entangling him in his current assignment of preventing a French smuggler (Jean-Pierre Thibodux) from getting his hands on a Russian
submarine. Then all hell breaks loose as they try at the same time to make certain that nothing overshadows their children's wedding day.
The film makes a fine remake of the 1979 movie about the two future fathers in-law who cannot
be more mismatched in temperament and lifestyles. Screenwriters are able to update the movie's comic gags with more witty lines and ridiculous situations. The director
successfully adapts a more fast-paced approach in the somewhat familiar plot. Music is a key aspect of the film as it livens up most scenes. Michael Douglas' and Albert
Brooks' contrast qualities fit the character of future in-laws.
Dealing with in-laws has always been a key issue in the family as sons and daughters decide to
marry and build their own family. It's inevitable that in-laws will eventually interact as both parties go through the process of integrating two different families. Almost
always, the experience is not very pleasant at first as The In-Laws
portrays. Thus, it puts into question the very concept of the family as a structure that destroys rather than builds human relationships. But the film makes it seem otherwise with the realization the two fathers, Steve and Jerry, have gone through together. Steve learns to be a better father to his son, and Jerry learns to loosen up, making him understand his daughter more. The film emphasizes the real essence of extending a family, that of learning to become better persons through accepting and reconciling differences.
(Date Reviewed: August 08, 2003)
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