Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell
Running time: 100 mins
Rating: ★★★

THIS fresh take on a 1990 Italian film from Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore is an old-fashioned family drama that isn’t afraid to go for the tear ducts in the soppy finale. I liked it more than I expected to, not least because Robert De Niro gives one of his best understated performances as recently widowed pensioner Frank, who worries when his children all find excuses not to attend his barbecue weekend.

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If they won’t come to him, he figures he’ll go to them. Despite his doctor’s warnings, he sets off on a journey across the US intending to pay surprise visits to each of his four children.

Not a good idea because what he finds aren’t the tales of happiness and joy that he’s expecting. Take his son David, an artist in New York. He’s gone missing from his apartment.

Undeterred, Frank moves on to visit his daughter Amy, who’s big in advertising in Chicago, his orchestral conductor son Robert in Denver and finally his youngster Rosie, a dancer in Las Vegas.

Writer-director Kirk Jones has fashioned an appealing family drama that doesn’t spring many surprises but is finely played by all concerned, not just De Niro but Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell and Drew Barrymore as his offspring.

And those who sit through the end credits will be rewarded with hearing an original song written for the film by Paul McCartney.