2/10
"I stand on my constitutional rights!"..."Well, stand on 'em over there!"
19 June 2005
Trouble in suburbia: the teenage daughter of a natty psychiatrist gets arrested for demonstrating on a college campus--holding up a sign with a "dirty word" written on it. This being a plushy, G-rated comedy-of-ills, we never learn the word, and the film has so little imagination that we can't even guess what that one word might be. David Niven is miscast as the girl's harried father. He's the wrong sort of actor for this part; clipped and dry, his impeccable manner never shows signs of sweat. Based on a hit play, the film is full of sitcom-static, with stagy and/or awkward supporting performances that are as irrelevant as the outcome of the plot. There's a kid next door who plays trumpet like Al Hirt, and Ozzie Nelson as his father, who stands "shaking" in his driveway because he wants to wallop the kid. Who wrote this stuff? It's filled with one-liners which ring out loud and empty. * from ****
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