A holiday gathering threatens to go off the rails when Ned Fleming realizes that his daughter's Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend is about to pop the question.
Director:
John Hamburg
Writers:
Jonah Hill (story),
John Hamburg (story) |
3 more credits »
Stars:
Zoey Deutch,
James Franco,
Tangie Ambrose |
See full cast & crew »
Storyline:
Over the holidays, Ned (Bryan Cranston), an overprotective but loving dad and his family visit his daughter at Stanford, where he meets his biggest nightmare: her well-meaning but socially awkward Silicon Valley billionaire boyfriend, Laird (James Franco). The rivalry develops,and Ned's panic level goes through the roof when he finds himself lost in this glamorous high-tech world and learns that Laird is about to pop the question. Written by
20th Century Fox
User Review:
This is a Hollywood comedy. It's clearly not supposed to be an art-film
critique of society, although it does poke a lot of fun at the culture
of Silicon Valley.
The plot is simple: Ned (Bryan Cranston), Barb (Megan Mullally), and
their 15 year-old son Scotty (Griffin Gluck) fly out to California from
their Grand Rapids home to spend Christmas with their daughter
Stephanie (Zoey Deutsch). Upon arrival, they discover that she is in a
relationship with bizarre tech billionaire Laird Mayhew (James Franco),
attended by his hilarious major-domo Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key). The
resulting culture clash provides the majority of the film's comedic
opportunities, although there is a fair amount of pure physical comedy,
many digs at the tech world, and a few pretty good stunts.
Many reviewers, including professionals who should know better, have
complained that this plot line is not new; and of course it isn't. But
I don't see this as a very relevant criticism. After all, if every new
movie had to have an original plot, we would have to abolish entire
genres such as the RomCom (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets
girl), to name just one.
Why Him? has a well-deserved R-rating. It's raunchy, to say the least,
and the dialogue is perhaps over-loaded with the F-word in particular.
But the whole point of a comedy is to make you laugh, and I laughed a
lot. So did the rest of the audience in the packed theater where I saw
it.
