User Reviews

I think the only person who's not a member of the Douglas clan in 'It Runs In The Family' is director Fred Schepisi. Okay, I exaggerate, but there are 3 generations PLAYING 3 generations (Kirk, Michael, and Cameron) and Kirk's ex-wife even plays his doting wife in the film. This is the first time that Kirk & Michael have worked together since the son's bit part in dad's '66 war drama 'Cast A Giant Shadow'. Young Cameron makes his film debut here and doesn't embarrass himself while acting with his world-famous elders. Bernadette Peters and Rory Culkin round out the headlining cast as the mother and youngest son of the Gromberg family.

This picture received plenty of publicity in spring '03 because it was a rare on-screen appearance by movie god Kirk Douglas. He doesn't stray too far from his own reality as a stroke victim with a loving wife and a successful son. In the movie, the Grombergs are New York lawyers. It must have been an act of will not to make them movie producers or something filmic. The drama is actually mostly melodrama, some of which doesn't work. Mitchell (Kirk) has a complicated relationship with Alex (Michael), who has difficult relations with his own sons. Every character goes through romantic troubles of one kind or another (death of a beloved, first love, infidelity) and the movie deserves credit for managing to be cute, but not cloying. It even ends on the right note of non-finality, which I assume was a contribution by Schepisi (who's good at leaving some realistic loose ends in his films).

Kirk probably comes off best here. He does a thing with pillows that just might bust your heart in two. Michael isn't stretching himself (although you can read the reverence for his dad in his eyes) and while Bernadette Peters & Rory Culkin do a nice job, they're merely providing low-key support to the Douglas gang. Kirk's still got it, even if he has to work extra hard to form sentences. The ferocity of 'The Bad And The Beautiful' isn't there anymore (hey, the guy is 88 this year, so the fact that he's working at all is amazing), but Kirk shows some funny facial expressions and double-takes. He's never anything less than compelling, which is the way it's always been in his career.

'It Runs In The Family' was in & out of theatres in about 19 minutes last year, which is a shame. While I'm being generous to recommend it, I confess that I enjoyed myself and really grew to like what was going on in this flick. The humour is scatter-shot, but I like that they didn't camp it up and go for cheap gags. Perhaps Michael, Kirk & company have never had a strained relationship the way the Gromberg's do, but they play the pathos in Jesse Wigutow's script well enough to make you care. Am I being so nice because it's such a treat to see a feisty Kirk Douglas working again? Maybe, but I felt good about these characters, warts and all. Perhaps the Douglas' will do something else together and get Catherine Zeta-Jones to join in the fun.

Boy, "It Runs in the Family" has set off more than a few critics' hot buttons. This unusual ensemble production, with most of the main characters played by the Douglas clan, is ruled in reality and in this quirky pastiche of intergenerational and marital disharmony and reconciliation by the great paterfamilias, Kirk.

Having escaped death in an aviation disaster, Kirk Douglas was felled, but hardly destroyed, by a very serious stroke. The neurological event left his speech but not other faculties impaired. He moves pretty well for his age. Damn well! Speech therapy has only taken him so far - forget the sharp voice of the star of roaring Westerns or a Viking saga. But the acting ability, the skill in projecting emotion, the cunning character who draws the viewer into a picture - Kirk Douglas is STILL Kirk Douglas.

The story is pedestrian, soap operish, New York, Jewish culture-inflected (Kirk Douglas rediscovered his Jewish roots not that long ago, celebrated an aged man's well-publicized Bar Mitzvah and wrote a book about his renewed commitment to Judaism). His son, Michael, not exactly unknown to the screen, is his son in "It Runs in the Family" and no amount of acting need substitute for the palpably real love between the characters. Douglas pere is the elder lawyer and his son is a partner in his firm, a man yearning for public service and elective office.

A few other Douglas clan members act and Joel Douglas co-produced the film. Catherine Zeta-Jones, occupied with pregnancy or other projects or litigation in London over wedding photos, didn't make the scene but Bernadette Peters is well cast as Michael's spouse. She's a therapist dealing with the problems that often arise in a two-decade-old marriage. Rory Culkin strongly plays Eli, an eleven-year-old whose walking-on-eggs approach to teenagehood is both sensitively portrayed and genuinely affecting.

The misadventures of the clan are really events that hit many families but few are so unlucky as to endure this much tsouris. But the ending...well, see it.

Some folks seem to have a real problem viewing Kirk Douglas act WITH and THROUGH his controlled but ineradicable disability. I've heard people say he has no business making films anymore (one critic wrote that). What are these people really saying? That the sight of a powerful man whose waves of vitality are awesome but who is in the sunset of his life ought not to parade genuine incapacity on the screen? Does it scare some that his slurred speech is the only aspect of his screen persona that isn't acted? I wonder.

See the film not because it's a great story - we've seen these melodramatic episodes many times over - but for the pleasure of watching people connected in real life explore myriad challenges with passion, humor, empathy and caring.

7/10.

I'll start off by saying I liked this film. Yes, stone

me to death or whatever, but I felt this film was rather decent in all respects. While I was surprised by the more dramatic tone to the film, the drama proved to be a welcomed surprise. It's a bit interesting to see virtually the entire Douglas family involved in this movie, which makes watching the interaction between the characters feel rather eerie. However, it was good to see Kirk Douglas in a movie again, and it only seemed fitting he do it with much of his extended family. Heart warming in many parts, it's not as bad of a movie as many critics made it out to be.

It isn't the least bit fair to call "It Runs in the Family" a "vanity project."

With three generations, Kirk and Michael and Cameron Douglas, and Douglas by marriage Diana all in it, the movie is certainly a FAMILY project, and despite the direction of the great Fred Schepisi, whose "Six Degrees of Separation" was a miracle of acting and editing, it somehow doesn't ever really soar. But there is nothing, but nothing, "vanity" about it except that the rich New York Jewish family, the Grombergs, whom the Douglases play, live in splendor -- but that's certainly not a stretch for the actual Douglases. It just makes their family problems a bit more posh than most people's.

What we see of this family is no cause for vanity, and our admiration is not sought, only our sympathy. This is a family of successful lawyers. But dad (Mitchell) has had a stroke, and his son (Alex), who has refused to become a partner, is torn between profit and pro bono cases, loyalty and infidelity, and has none of the brass or verve of the high powered Michael Douglas of "Wall Street." (Michael's performance isn't particularly strong here either, but the other Douglases' all are.) He and his therapist wife Rebecca (Bernadette Peters) have two kids nine years apart. Mitchell's wife is played by Michael's actual mother, the regal Diana Douglas, whom Kirk divorced in 1951 but has remained good friends with.

The kids in the family are not showing great promise. The young 12-year old son Eli is a bit odd -- or at least inarticulate. Much is made of his wordlessly presenting a spreadsheet to ask for a raise in his weekly allowance, and for his not particularly wanting to discuss sex with his parents or older brother. But this is one of the places where the humane and comprehensive screenplay fails to convince completely. Is that really so odd? -- or is Eli just a budding accountant? As Eli, the very forthright and self-possessed Rory Culkin, from another famous acting family, seems too self-contained and sure of himself to be seen as truly having problems. His main problem seems to be that he's 12.

Cameron Douglas, Michael's real life son, whose acting experience is chiefly from a TV series, is Asher, the 21-year-old "laid back" son, a loveable loser who deals some pot and misses a lot of his classes but knows how to party and is a good deejay. Asher is blowing his life for now, but the buoyant and physical Cameron is fun to watch as he throws all his passion and enthusiasm into his first significant screen role. As Asher, he's full of life and slouchy charm and it's not so far fetched that a nice girl would get interested in him, despite his loser qualities. Again here, though, the writer has not developed the subtleties suggested by the plot. The movie tries to show us too much about too many of the characters to provide any with full development.

Mitchell, Alex, and Asher all give advice to each other and to Eli, never very effectively. They're full of brash posturing toward to their next of kin but lacking in real conviction. But somehow, the movie tells us, this is a way of showing affection. It's okay that they only pretend to know the answers. The story never works out any of the problems it creates for its characters or fully develops them, but it does succeed in its purpose of being a story about family and about honest acceptance of human frailty.

Kirk as the aging patriarch, who loses his wife and then his demented brother, brings us in for some embarrassment (his scenes are the most cornball sentimental), but you can't help admiring the 86-year-old actor's enormous pluck. After his stroke he has sprung back and though he waddles feebly on his jogs around the Central Park reservoir and doesn't talk so good anymore, he certainly can still deliver his lines with a vigor one wishes Michael had mustered here. There's a kind of strength and simplicity about the aging Kirk Douglas that seems very close to real. Whether his blustery authority mixed with emotional distance is true to the man himself, it's believable in his scenes with his wife and son.

One aspect -- also arguably anti-vanity, yet both proud and truthful, is that the Douglases are playing what they really are, a successful Jewish family, and not the sanitized non-ethnic Americans that Hollywood required when Kirk was in his prime. And because the movie shows a seder and funeral and identifies the family with Jewish ritual, we do get a sense of family life as a part of cultural tradition.

Mitchell's wife Rebecca gets upset when she discovers women's undies in his pocket that came from a scene at a free food project where a fellow volunteer (Sarita Chudoury) has the hots for him (nothing subtle about this encounter). This sequence is poorly developed and it isn't clear, since Mitchell neither defends nor incriminates himself, why Rebecca gets into such a tailspin. Ms. Peters is nothing but earnest and intense. She can engender little sympathy nor convey much sense of an active intelligence.

There are way more crises than any family could handle in this short span of time: marital problems, two deaths of elders, a child who runs off during a school function, the older boy flunking out of school and arrested for drugs, his first serious love affair ruined, the patriarch facing "a few good years left" alone. And none of it's resolved. But though the shortcomings in character development may be a distinct weakness in the movie, the lack of resolution is not in itself a fault. The real fault, and what keeps this from being one of Fred Schepisi's best efforts, is that the writing isn't focused enough and turns maudlin too often. It's fine to jerk a few tears, but for a comedy "It Runs in the Family" is too soft hearted and soft headed. Maybe in the end all that really mattered was for Kirk and Michael finally to make a movie together after all these years, and the process created too many good vibes to allow for edginess or wit. But let's not call that vanity. Let's call it love.

This was a watchable but highly forgettable film. It bounces around from character to character, with material that is more like character development than a true story. I kept waiting for something to happen, some plot to develop, but it never really did. It was just like a comedic soap opera.

Not that this break from traditional style is all together bad, it's just not that good. I gave it an average 6 stars(mostly for the star power.

There might have been a good film project in pairing Kirk Douglas and his son Michael. These two actors have been leaders in their field in more than a half century of movie making. I would have preferred a documentary-style film in which these two legendary performers reminisce about their films, their careers, and their relationship. It is obvious that Michael adores his father. Unfortunately, "It Runs in the Family" was not a showcase for these actors' talents. The film proceeded in fits and starts. Oddly, the storyline was that of a dysfunctional family with many embarrassing scenes, including one jaw-dropper with Kirk and Michael setting a boat ablaze as a funeral pyre with Kirk's dead brother aboard. They flee the scene as the police and fire department arrive. Was this sequence supposed to be funny? The cast is rounded out by such fine performers as Bernadette Peters and Audra McDonald, who are wasted in the film. In their film careers, both Kirk and Michael Douglas consistently showed good taste in their film projects. "It Runs in the Family" was a notable lapse and an unfortunate exercise in self-indulgence.

It's a light-hearted family comedy. The chemistry between the casts is wunderful, especially that of Kirk and Diana Douglas. The husband-and-wife conversations in the film feel warm and real, thanks to Jesse Wigutow's good script. The Douglas family really pulled it off without making it a vanity.

Although I agree with other ratings on IMDB, I feel that this movie is underrated here.

(6.5/10)

A year after his stroke, grandfatherly Kirk Douglas (as Mitchell "Pappy" Gromberg) is in remarkable shape, and is seeing a speech therapist. Happily married son Michael Douglas (as Alex) is nonetheless having a hard time fighting off the urge to merge with a hot co-volunteer. Third generation Cameron Douglas (as Asher) is a way too laid-back college drug user, and dealer. He encourages sixth grade little brother Rory Culkin (as Eli) to start putting some notches on his young belt. "You poking' her?" young Mr. Douglas asks little brother about a classmate. "I'm eleven," Mr. Culkin explains. "It Runs in the Family" is an unfunny dysfunctional "light-hearted comedy," with heavy-handed dramatic overtones. Surprisingly, Donna (as Evelyn) is the best Douglas in the house. The greater Douglas/Douglas pairing fizzles like a senile uncle's gas at the supper table.

**** It Runs in the Family (4/25/03) Fred Schepisi ~ Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Cameron Douglas, Bernadette Peters

This movie is just not interesting or well done. The acting is very clunky and the whole movie feels stiff and unnatural. I was actually pretty appalled at how bad it was. I figured with some of the talent, it would have it's moments. Honestly, it did not. It is hard to watch Kirk Douglas speaking with his voice after his stroke. My Dad has had two strokes so I know how hard it is to get your speech back, but for me with the lackluster script and then his altered speech and of course his face is changed too from his stroke, it was difficult to see. I am sure most people would not want to bring this up to be sensitive, but everyone is thinking it. It is sad to watch this movie with Michael Douglas's son Cameron, who is in jail for drugs until 2018, and then to know his stepbrother died in 2004 from a drug overdose. Roger Ebert said if they just made a movie based on their real lives, it would of been a heck of a movie.

I was not particularly anxious to see this film but it was a rainy Saturday (the day after it opened in my area) so I dragged my movie-hating husband to see It Runs In The Family not really knowing what to expect.

I had seen Michael Douglas on several tv talk shows and each time he mentioned his nervousness over his son's acting--well he didn't need to worry - Cameron carried the movie!!! He's cute as a button and has charm oozing out of his pores.

I must admit the movie was at times depressing (the treatment of the elderly uncle). I also had a difficult time viewing Kirk Douglas on the screen. The first Mrs, Kirk Douglas (Michael's real-life mother Diana) was a delight. The Culkin boy was wonderful also.

Michael Douglas was his usual terrific self. In recent pictures, he appeared to be ageing, but in this movie he looked quite youthful. He was supposed to be in his late 40's and definitely pulled it off.

I would not highly recommend this film--I was never bored but I was a little depressed.

"It Runs in the Family" is a boring comedy. There is some element of a tribute to the great acting career of Kirk Douglas, who plays an elderly father of Michael Douglas. His stroke producing hemiparesis and dysphasia is amply displayed by this veteran. One can enjoy some few sentimental moments, but it is not worth the rental. The Douglas family probably received some handsome remuneration for this film. They probably also are enjoying the fact that nearly their entire family is featured in this fiasco. One should avoid this film if possible. If not, be prepared to take a brief snooze. Don't waste your money on this boring tribute to a great actor.

This is a well done movie about family life. It could be compared to The Royal Tannenbaums in genre. I personally feel it is better done, really a terrific movie. For a first time actor, Cameron Douglas did very well. Not surprising when you see how well the other actual family members do in their chosen field! It is about the normal dysfunctual family and then some. There is laughter, tears and it makes you think. I recommend it highly and feel sorry for those who just did not get the movie. It only made 8 million I heard. Pitty those who do no get to see it!

I'm being generous giving this movie a 5/10. Only the interaction between Kirk and Michael is what keeps this movie afloat. Unfortunately, there are too many plot lines going on here. I think there are sincere moments between the real life father and son that help the movie. Unfortunately, Cameron Douglas, Michael's son, is wasted in a wildly underwritten part and his character comes across as unsympathetic. Rory Culkin and Bernadette Peters also have pointless subplots. The movie should have stuck to one plot line and it might have been better.

Though It Runs In the Family could have been Kirk Douglas's swan song, his signature on his career as The Shootist was for John Wayne, the man went out and did another after this. And at the age of 90 he may still try another.

It's not as bad as watching James Cagney in Terrible Joe Moran, that television film which had Cagney in a wheelchair and nearly all his lines dubbed in by impressionist Rich Little. Kirk is conceding to his limitations in the part, the stroke we all know he suffered is written in. Still remembering him in Spartacus or The Vikings or even in something as trite as My Dear Secretary, one remembers the tremendous energy he brought to all his parts. The energy unlike with Cagney, is still there, only his slurred speech is a reminder of what he sustained.

Personally I like to remember my movie idols as they were in their prime, going out the way Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, or William Powell did.

Kirk is the patriarch of the Gromberg family and son Michael and grandson Cameron play the same roles in the film. Even former wife Diana Douglas, Michael's real life mom, plays grandma. The problems of each generation is shown. In the end the family is all brought closer together.

Kirk did his own homage to one of his former starring roles, The Vikings, when he and Michael take his brother's body and give him a viking funeral on a lake. It's the most poignant scene in the film.

When he wrote his memoirs Kirk made much reference to his Russian Jewish heritage. In his prime I can only recall in Cast A Giant Shadow where that was part of the plot. In his old age, Kirk Douglas has gone back to his roots in a few projects. Another favorite scene of mine is the Passover Seder.

Still it's painful to watch him, but you got to admire the man's grit.

Maybe it was a mistake to cast all those Douglases in this film, as it predisposes one to view it in terms of its parallels or lack of them with the actual actors' lives. (I guess Rory Culkin was made an honorary Douglas for the occasion -- but then again his own family history more than qualifies him.) If we can leave that peculiarity out for a moment, however, I think we have here a reasonably veridical, if painful, portrayal of a very assimilated New York Jewish family that has lost its way. Or rather, the second generation lost its way, and the third generation never even had a way to lose. It's no accident that the celebration of Passover is one focal point of the movie: it is this holiday that originally bestowed the Hebrews' fundamental identity, against which the infamous Blood Libels were directed, and which has retained the last vestige of "meaning" in the lives of Jews who have abandoned almost everything else. The message of Passover is not only the historical one of emancipation from physical slavery; it is the freedom from enslavement to one's inner demons that comes with dedication to a demanding set of ethics and practices, whether in business or in personal life. That is what the Grombergs have lost, and maybe the Douglases too. The title, "It Runs In the Family" is, I believe, an indictment: it is what has CEASED to run in the family that is bringing this one down.

A wealthy family is torn apart by being dysfunctional. Yes, it happens in the best of families.

Kirk and Michael Douglas are the Brombergs-father and son, who are constantly bickering.

As in real life, Kirk is the stroke victim and his wife is on dialysis. His oldest grandson is using drugs and talks like he belongs with characters who constantly use the term dude. At certain points, this actually became annoying.

Mike is married to Bernadette Peters, who makes the most of her part, that of an angry wife, who confronts her husband when she finds panty hose in his coat pocket.

Unfortunately, Grandma dies after one last dance with Grandpa. We've seen this cliché before. Even a demented Uncle Steve passes on. Morbid!

The last half hour is where the film falls apart. Uncle Steve, a navy vet, is burned up on a boat by the Brombergs. Kirk recites Kaddish over the burning body which is offensive in the Jewish faith. Speaking of religion, a nice Seder is marred by family spats.

While the burning is taking place, the teen Bromberg is busted for drugs but will beat the rap since no warrant was issued. Since when are police not aware of that? The younger son runs away with a girl from a 6th grade dance. She had been hanging around an older group of boys who confront them. Miraculously, our 6th grade boy beats the older boy as the 2 flee.

The ending is ridiculous. Everyone almost kisses and makes up and goes to sleep saying goodnight to all. What's this, the Waltons?

Retirement is for some people. I want to remember Kirk Douglas for "Champion," "Lust for Life," "The Bad and the Beautiful." I don't want to remember a poor script and a story that goes awry. One star for the effort and the second in honor of Douglas' long career.

There are lots of little things to like about this film. The problem is, the filmmakers do absolutely nothing with them. Each character has their own quirks and problems that make for funny little moments. However, there are so many characters that the time gets shredded up between them and we never see anything beyond the surface. Not only that, but the narrative tension that drives the plot is contrived to the point of precluding any dramatic impact. The grandfather is a rather bitter old man who is critical towards his son. However, these reasons and backstories are never actually explored. This goes nowhere. The father is a dissatisfied middle-aged man who wants to find his calling in life and is dealing with an affair. However, this all came about with no build-up or chemistry and gets triggered suddenly in the middle of a public kitchen. This goes nowhere. The older son is doing terribly at school and is romantically pursuing a more responsible student. However, this only happens because she does a complete 180 degree flip on her previous repulsion towards him, for no reason. This goes nowhere. The younger son finds his parents overbearing and is infatuated with another student who had run away. The backstory is, yet again, not actually explored in any real depth. This goes nowhere. You get the pattern. The actors do their best with the meagre material they get, and these little moments are sometimes quite entertaining, but overall it feels like watching a lot of first acts of a lot of characters.

The "best" line in the movie and used in the trailer leading one to think it set an interesting tone for this movie. "It Runs In The Family" has some very basic problems which significantly disappointed me. The Douglas Family - they're all here, Michael, his son Cameron, and his mom and dad, both Kirk and Diana. The compilation of these people is obviously the sole reason this movie was ever made - it's was just enough to pawn the whole thing off. The problem? Cameron is an unappealing actor, a flawed young Sean Penn wannabe, and Kirk due to his unfortunate real life stroke, cannot speak well. The movie makes an excuse for Kirk's ANNOYING speech impediment, by giving his character the same problem he has in real life. This excuse does not forgive subjecting the viewer to such awkward dialogue the full length of their rental fee. You will feel both these actors are clearly forced upon you strictly because of their last name. Bernadette Peters adds nothing to this movie. She's poorly cast into a role as Michael Douglas's spouse, and given the free passes handed out with the other roles, seems stuck, but rolls her eyes and goes along with the mess. There were many reasons Michael Douglas gave this a shot, but even his relative brilliance can't bring the other "relatives" into focus. In no way is this "On Golden Pond" - rather it's about as much fun as stepping into a puddle.

The type of humor that brings tears to your eyes instead of the silliness that usually passes for comedy these days. I seriously enjoyed watching Michael and Kirk Douglas working together, found the material touching and poignant, and found myself caring deeply about the characters. I don't know about you, but that works for me.

It's the multi-generational Gromberg family in New York City. Mitchell Gromberg (Kirk Douglas) is struggling with the after-effects of a stroke. His son Alex (Michael Douglas) has personal and professional dramas. He's married to Rebecca (Bernadette Peters) with two sons, Eli (Rory Culkin) and Asher (Cameron Douglas). Slacker Asher has a complicated relationship with classmate Peg Maloney (Michelle Monaghan).

It's great to see the Douglas clan together. The problem is that the movie has no focus. It's scattershot story telling. It's one thing after another with no particular end point. The movie ends abruptly. What I actually want is a movie where Michael and Kirk are hanging together. It could be a two person film. The best part of this movie is the two of them on a park bench. It does get ridiculous with a dead body, but it would work in a more focused movie. The dead body comes out of nowhere and has no weight. It would work better with his wife's body. As for Asher's story, Monaghan gets to strut around in her underwear, but that relationship has no reality. Cameron Douglas is trying to punch above his weight and sometimes he can. As for Eli and Abby, that puppy love is terribly cute. At the end of the day, there is some good and it's great to have a family affair.

You might think Kirk Douglas incapable of appearing in really bad movies but he's done a stinker or two and this one definitely qualifies. It borrows liberally from another movie where Dan Akroyd played Kirk's troubled adult son and Kirk, having suffered a recent stroke, had to make him believe before the credits rolled that he always loved him and did the best he could for him. That movie wasn't bad, as I recall, whereas this one stinks to high hell and there's nothing to be done about it. Almost every emotional moment comes off forced and false. That said, even with his speech impediment and other post-stroke problems, Kirk hands in by far the most competent performance. Unfortunately, it is clearly not nearly enough to elevate the horrible writing, stupid plot line, and pathetic performances of his fellow actors. Michael Douglas is a total turkey in this abysmal flick, in which he fends off another aggressive female intent on "raping him." You've done that one already, Mike, remember? Bernadette Peters, although looking surprisingly fit for a woman her age, is photographed from some very poor angles and just looks odd too much of the time. Her part is completely forgettable. The youngest Douglas comes off as a complete jerk (to use a less offensive term than the one I actually have in mind). The scene in which he's finally going to make love to the cute young girl he's been after for half the movie, then decides he can't have sex with her after all because "it wouldn't be right," is almost as shmarmy but not nearly as offensive as the scene where the same girl goes to his dorm room and finds him enthusiastically disco-dancing with his male roommate. Douglas really gets into it and I vaguely felt like throwing up. The part where Kirk and Michael send Kirk's dead brother across a suburban lake in a boat that they have torched, ala "The Vikings," is just kind of dumb but hardly the dumbest moment in a flick chock full of dumb moments. The Seder scene with everyone in their yarmulkes is just plain silly, in my opinion. OK, granted I'm not Jewish, but I think that is one tradition that ought to go the way, the skull caps on grown men, I mean. The youngest Douglas looks absolutely ridiculous in his because he plays an unrepentant dope dealer, but gee, he's got to wear his yarmulke for Seder to keep the older folks happy. It's ridiculous. In short, this movie is phony, false, forced, and exploitive of Kirk Douglas's various handicaps following his stroke. The entire Douglas clan ought to be thoroughly embarrassed for appearing in this piece of dung, because that is what it is. Kirk is capable of standout work and doesn't even scratch the surface of his capabilities simply because this movie, itself, is dead on arrival and nothing he does to resuscitate it has a chance to succeed.