Review of Meet the Parents (2000) by Amanda C — 01 Dec 2017

"Meet the Parents", released in 2000, is a comedy about a man, Greg Focker who in a turn of events finds himself spending the weekend with his new girlfriend Pam's family, biding his time desperately trying to win over the approval of her parents, especially her father Jack.

Throughout the film, Greg tries to impress Pam's parents, much to his own downfall. Time after time Greg tries and fails to win over the approval of Jack, and eventually becomes so desperate that he will literally do anything to get Jack on his side.

All of this is Greg's attempt to get Jack to like him so that he will approve of Greg marrying Jack's eldest daughter Pam. Jack continuously puts up a fight with Greg, making us feel that he might actually want Greg to fail.

As one thing continues to go wrong after another, Greg packs up his bags and heads to his and Pam's shared home in Chicago, before being stopped by none other than Jack. As Jack interrogates Greg to no end, Greg shows his evolution by pushing back and Jack and putting him in his place for his incessant inability to allow the people around him live their lives as they see fit.

I found the film emotionally moving in that it was great to see Greg's evolution and see him finally be able to push back at Jack and then propose to Pam. I feel that this film brought its genre to another level.

There's a dark comedy and inappropriate side to the film that we don't often see from comedic films of that time. I don't feel that the writers or filmmakers could have improved any more on this work, as I feel that it was done pretty flawlessly.

The story moves along pretty seamlessly, and every scene proves to be just as enjoyable and memorable as the next.