It began decades earlier with a laugh – and a mystery.
Peter Falk made Paul Reiser’s dad laugh. Not that Reiser’s father was a glum guy, far from it, just that Falk never failed to entertain him. And Sam Reiser’s only son (years before he created “Mad About You” and wrote two best sellers) wanted to know why. And if he couldn’t figure out why, he would at least celebrate his father’s pleasure.
In “The Thing About My Folks” (which opened last Friday), Falk stars as Sam Kleinman. When Sam finds a goodbye letter from his wife of 47 years, he heads to son Ben’s home. Ben (Reiser) believes he has all the answers. He doesn’t.
You get the sense that if Reiser could go door-to-door to hawk this generous, personal film, he would. Over coffee and untouched pastries, the writer- producer-co-star talked about his folks, about Falk, and why critics sometimes get in the way of a movie finding its audience.
But first a question from Reiser: “Did you see it by yourself or with an audience?
“Because every critic says, ‘Don’t worry, I can watch it by myself. I can imagine laughter.’ You don’t. Because I didn’t. I was showing this movie for months, only at my house. Three people at a time – which is not the best release pattern.”
So when was the first time he saw it with an audience?
“January we put it in a film festival. To me it was an eye- opener. People laugh when they’re in numbers. People let themselves get carried away. When I see people in Kansas and Memphis reacting to the movie, it warms the cockles of my heart. I have warm cockles even as we speak.”
On his ideal audience.
“I wanted the tag line to be, ‘If you’re under 40, you’re not allowed to see the movie.’ There are plenty of movies for people in their 20s. This is for grown-ups. In the beginning of trying to get this movie made, I heard every cartoon cliché of a studio exec. They were caricatures of themselves. Not everything is an action movie. Not everything is a TV show. Life happens to old people.”
On why it took decades to make.
“I started to write this when I was 27. I didn’t finish it till I was 47. That’s a lot of life. I have two boys now, 10 and 5. That helped me. You look at your own parents with more forgiveness and more understanding. Hey, I don’t know what I’m doing. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were just winging it.”
Reiser waxes Falknarian.
“I wrote this not only for Peter. I wrote this because of him. I like movies that are both comic and emotional in unpredictable ways. Peter Falk embodies that dynamic like no one else. In Peter’s funniest movies there’s always something vulnerable about him. And in his most emotional moments there’s something comic. In the opening of the movie you see Peter Falk’s face and I watch the audience relax. In the best sense, he’s familiar. We know this guy. He’s been in our homes for 40 years.”
What about Sam, Ben and their womenfolk.
“Here’s a guy who doesn’t pay enough attention and here’s a guy bending over backward to be the most attentive, best darn husband in the world. Guess what? You’re both wrong.”
What did your mother think of the film?
“I told her, it’s a father- and-son movie, but it’s about you.”
Her response?
“She said, ‘Yeah, sell it somewhere else, buddy.”‘
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
