Meet The Fockers

Synopsis: Having given permission to male nurse Gaylord "Greg" Focker (Ben Stiller) to wed his daughter (Teri Polo), ex-CIA man Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) and his wife (Blythe Danner) travel to Detroit to meet Bernard and Roslyn Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand).

This sequel to the highly amusing Meet The Parents features more uncomfortable comic moments, and the terrific addition of Dustin Hoffman (who seems to have a penchant for characters named Bernard) and Barbara Streisand as Gaylord Focker's parents. As house-husband and sex therapist respectively, they add a warmth and believable humanity that was missing from the unrelenting farce of the first film. While overtly about Jack Byrnes inspecting the Fockers to see if they measure up, the real heart and soul of the story is whether the Byrnes will themselves measure up, and if not - will they be 'fockerised'?

Meet The Parents may have been a more consistently funny film, assisted by the novelty of seeing a nervous Ben Stiller desperately seeking approval from the coldly incisive Robert De Niro. In comparison, the sequel relies on sexual gags, and in the final moments crashes through to resolution with surprising haste, given that it had two hours to get there. But what it does well is the question of relationships, particularly the difficult beginnings when families (not to mention pets) merge. It also manages to raise some of the social questions familiar to American film at the moment - Should freedoms be protected by civil liberties or restrictions? Should mediocrity be celebrated? Should children be pressured to succeed?

De Niro shone in the original, but now it's Hoffman's turn. He has an uncanny ability to be everyman, even when cast as a flowery hippy fit for lampooning. He is the real man of the hour, not the emotionally-ossified ex-CIA guy. His character is wonderfully realised, responding to the turbulent events around him with lovely bemusement. The central conceits of Meet The Parents and Meet The Fockers are sometimes over-played (is it really so laughable to be a male nurse?), but the first was saved by its superbly funny awkward moments and the second is redeemed by transforming power of the Fockers.

FYI: Whilst Meet The Fockers proved to be that rare animal, a sequel that was as good as the original, there was a 2010 third chapter, Little Fockers, which reunited the same cast but was directed by Paul Weitz. It suffered badly from dead horse syndrome and was universally dismissed.

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