Father Against His Will - DVD

Movie: Jeff (T.R. Knight) has a real dilemma. His father (Danny Aiello) is on his deathbed and wants nothing more than an offspring to carry on the family name. Originally, Jeff's brother was going to take on this task. But unfortunately, his extreme vanity and the loud orgasm of his opera-singing wife didn't mix well, and so Jeff not only had to bury his brother who died during sex, but also take over his task of producing offspring. The problem with this: actually, the shy Jeff wants to become a priest and has therefore renounced any form of carnality. Now he ventures into the horizontal, hoping to quickly find the right one to give his father the offspring he desires. Too bad Jeff stumbles from one sexual disaster to the next, overlooking the fact that the right one has long been lingering near him.

John DeBellis has proven his talent for wry humor time and again as a writer for quite a few late night and comedy shows. His attempt to pull it off convincingly as a director as well can now be seen in Germany in the form of the 2006 low-budget comedy "Vater wider Willen". T.R. Knight, who became known through the series "Grey`s Anatomy", delivered his first leading role here. He was allowed to act alongside the old star Danny Aiello, the charming Sabrina Lloyd ("Sliders") or Mario Cantone, known from "Sex and the City". All this sounds so far like a promising comedy.

However, the attempt to make the humor as black and frivolous as possible seems at times too strained and too often veers into flat silliness. There are some very amusing moments, a few funny running gags and the one or other really good laugh, but unfortunately the flat and sometimes even embarrassing ones are in the majority. On top of that, while T.R. Knight is a likeable anti-hero, he still seems a bit too awkward here to really carry this film.

Who likes a little bit coarse, black US humor and who doesn't mind if it gets a little bit silly, could have fun with "Father Against His Will", because for an enjoyable DVD evening in this case the good laughs are enough. But who prefers it a little cleverer and more level, which is here rather to the audience against will.

Picture + Sound: The low budget of the production is also noticeable in the conversion for home theater. The picture is largely clean, but does show some noticeable weaknesses, particularly in the area of sharp detail. The sound is largely dominated by the dialogue, which is more powerful in the German language version, but also much more front-heavy mixed.

Extras: Apart from a couple of trailers from the provider's program, the DVD unfortunately has no bonus material to offer.
BR</x>Conclusion: "Father Against His Will" is a quirky comedy with potential. However, the successful gags are clearly in the minority, making this low budget production a dubious pleasure at times. The DVD is technically on a decent level, but disappoints in the bonus material section, which only consists of a couple of trailers

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp