FX Feeney review: Full Grown Men

Although it is lyrical throughout, with a strong "sense of place" -- particularly about the great American dreamland that is Florida -- Full Grown Men is, at its core, a very funny, very tough-minded film about the need to grow up.

Alby (Matt McGrath) is, at age 35, a gifted cartoonist and avid custodian of his own childhood toys. He is tossed out of his marriage as the story opens. His wife (Katie Kreisler) has had it with his obsessive refusal to become a responsible adult. "A kid's job is having fun, and I was great at my job," he confides to us in voiceover. Unemployed and blissfully unambitious, he sets for himself the perfectly inane goal of revisting "Diggityland," the theme park at the epicenter of his long-lost childhood.

Director David Munro and his cowriter (and producer) Xandra Castleton take a brave but rewarding risk by unfolding this story from Alby's selfish, happy-go-lucky point of view. A moviegoer's instinctive wish to identify with a given protagonist is, at times, made painful, even insufferable, by Alby's clueless abuse of those whose paths he crosses on this odyssey -- most importantly Elias (Judah Friedlander), the boyhood pal he revisits, and dragoons (for a time) into becoming his driver. Elias is now a highly responsible teacher of disabled children. He cringes, inwardly at first, then openly, that his former best friend and longtime tormentor should still call him by a belittling boyhood nickname. Yet he also cares for Alby as readily as he would for any disabled child -- and this is the first strong hint of the satiric wit with which Munro and Castleton have structured their tale. Courtesy of McGrath's finely layered performance, we are made privvy to glimpses of the man he may yet become -- especially during his interactions with Rollie, a sweet but caustically honest disabled child (Benjamin Karpf). Smartly balanced, well-thought through, Full Grown Men achieves an ambitious goal -- a comedy that seriously critiques a generation, from the inside. Yet it achieves this without advertising its ambition -- scoring its points with subtle care in the course of a road trip (and a belated "coming of age") as entertaining as the wine tour in Sideways. The soft beauty of the camera work by Frank G. DeMarco and the (by turns) wriggly and dreamlike character of the music by Charlie Campbell are indispensible to this effect.

Despite that Alby narrates, despite that his journey is witnessed strictly from his point of view, there is a wonderfully involuntary logic operating against him at all times, as if his own mature self were haunting the tale unseen, like a poltergeist who wants to be let in, secretly organizing the progressive gallery of challenges, ghoulish strangers, and kicks in the ass needed to wake himself up. He must encounter a marvelous monster of overgrown childhood gone amok in the hitchhiker played by Alan Cumming; listen as a sage vet of the depression and World War II (Jerry Grayson, terrific) hold forth on the self-indulgence of later generations, and (most hilariously) run afoul of an aspiring circus clown (Amy Sedaris) and her troupe of loyal dwarves, who literally stomp sense into him.

"A fascinating capture of old, uneasy friendship." (4 out of 5 stars)
- eFILMCRITIC

"Charming, heartwarming, and funny."
- TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

"An engaging, soulful story that tears down the clichés of maturity. A funny, one-of-a-kind tale full of humor and humanity."
- CINEVEGAS

"A lovely, bewitching film with a lot on its mind."
- NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"A wonderful movie. No matter how preposterous, the characters ring true.That is the mark of a great comedy."
- ABC News

"Genuinely different and stylishly compelling. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking."
- NERVE.COM

"Funny and real, with a wicked sense of humor." (3.5 out of 4 stars)
- Las Vegas Weekly

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