Film Review: WORLD’S GREATEST DAD (2009)

Writer/Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Running time: 99 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Comedy/Drama
UK Release date: 24^th September 2010 (limited)

Watched on Sky+ Monday 26^th September 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I read and heard (via the radio) reviews about this one saying that although it wasn’t great, it was worth a watch. Well, a Monday night comes around and I decide to give it a go. I pretty much enjoyed it… Yes, it was a little slow to get going, but once it did I found it pretty entertaining. I think it helps that I quite like Robin Williams; I grew up on a diet of ‘Mork & Mindy’ (amongst others). I will give you my thoughts on this rather good dark comedy after this brief summary.

(NOTE: Possible spoilers in the next paragraph)

Lance is a High school English teacher who has ambitions to become a writer. The only trouble is, he hasn’t had anything published yet. He is a single parent, living with his fifteen year old son, Kyle. Now Kyle is not very bright and a bit of a jerk most of the time, he does, however, have one friend, Andrew (fine name!). Lance is having a secret affair with a fellow teacher, Claire, but she seems to be attracted to another teacher, Mike Lane. It all changes when Kyle meets with an unfortunate, and fatal, accident. In trying to cover it up, Lance writes him a suicide note and stages his death. He eventually returns to work and finds that everyone is cordial enough, but when the suicide note is published in the school paper things really start to get interesting for Lance. I won’t say any more as I’ve probably given a bit too much away already and the Spoiler Police are on my trail.

A nicely made film with the action interspersed with some pretty good tunes. Easily one of the best films Robin Williams has made recently; he played Lance. Daryl Sabara did a good job as Kyle, as did Evan Martin as his friend Andrew (still a fine name). I thought Alexie Gilmore as Claire and Henry Simmons as Mike Lane were also worthy of a mention.

The story did take a little while before it went anywhere, there seemed to be a lot of exposition for about forty minutes. I was just about getting frustrated that nothing seemed to be happening when things picked up. The latter two thirds of the film are quite witty and (I found) more enjoyable to watch. It’s not a complicated plot, I found it easy to predict the ending, but it did it’d job and I can’t knock it for that! Ultimately, I found it a rather good and deeply dark comedy… Recommended.

My Score: 7.1/10.

IMDb Score: 7.0/10 (based on 13,081 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1262981/

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88/100 (based on 113 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1213731-worlds_greatest_dad/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:

Claire: So, do you play sports?
Kyle: No, I'm a big spaz like my dad.
Lance Clayton: Well, I was in the dive team in college.
Kyle: Diving's not really a sport, it's falling.

Andrew: You know what's strange about the book?
Lance Clayton: What?
Andrew: Kyle never talks about vaginas, anal sex, fisting, felching, or rimjobs.
Lance Clayton: Yeah, it is a little light in the felching area, you're right. But I think it's there, Andrew, in its own way.

Lance Clayton: I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.

LINKS:
Official Site: http://www.worldsgreatestdadfilm.com/
Trailer: