Parental Guidance - 3 smiles

“Parental Guidance,” starring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, is an engaging comedy that bridges multiple generations. If there’s a problem, it’s that there’s just too much of Crystal and his shtick. Most of the humor comes from the distances between the generations, especially when it comes to all things wired (e.g., tweeting, facebooking) and it’s certainly not a Grandfather Knows Best kind of story. In fact, Billy Crystal’s grandfather fumbles and bumbles his way through and director Andy Frickman takes care to show that wisdom can just as easily flow from the grandkids up as from the grandparents down. Performances are definitely not subtle: Crystal delivers his mile-a-minute patter, Midler her wisecracks, and Marisa Tomei, as their daughter, is appropriately frazzled.

Artie and Diane (Crystal and Midler) are a Fresno, California couple, whose only child, Alice (Tomei), has married Phil (Tom Everett Scott), lives in Atlanta and has three children. The oldest, Harper (Bailee Madison) is a high-strung overachiever. Turner (Joshua Rush) has a stutter and Barker (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf), the baby, has an intrusive, imaginary kangaroo friend. When Alice reluctantly asks her parents to watch the kids for a week, Diane is thrilled. Artie, the sports announcer for the Fresno Grizzlies, neither wants to play grandpa nor be called it. It’s clear from the tension between father and daughter that there are some unresolved issues. Based on the number of laughing children in the audience when I saw it, “Parental Guidance” is a family-friendly movie. And if you’re a grandparent, you’ll love it, too. 1/6/13