‘Give or Take’ review: Cape Cod comedy-drama skims the surface

“Give or Take” is a honest, frequently involving household dramedy about coming to terms with the earlier — and the existing. If only co-writers Paul Riccio (he also directed) and Jamie Effros (he stars) had dropped some of their story’s quirks and shaggy-pet bits for a deeper, a lot more genuine dive into their major characters’ more true selves, the film could have taken off in a extra distinctive and memorable way.

An additional slip here is the casting of Effros in the direct position of Martin, a hangdog techie who travels from New York to Cape Cod to settle the estate of his late, estranged father, Kenneth. Effros proves an overly bland existence, primarily in contrast to his skillful, strong co-star, two-time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz, who plays Ted, an unruly landscaper with whom Kenneth fell in really like immediately after his spouse — Martin’s mother — died 6 decades before.

A great deal of the movie finds Martin and Ted battling more than Martin’s household household, which Kenneth and Ted shared with each other in the form of pleasure and closeness Kenneth under no circumstances quite had with Martin’s mother. Ted needs to stay in the dwelling and shell out it off above decades Martin needs to promote it — there is a $1.9 million cash offer on the table — and shut the chapter on his dad. Not so rapid.

It’s the quick fallout and begrudging stop-fireplace between the uptight Martin and the grieving Ted that in the end drives the motion as Martin, rarely the most dimensional thinker, struggles to reconcile a host of own problems. These involve his longtime resentment towards his distant father, conflicted feelings about Kenneth’s coming out as gay, and the mind-boggling reality that his dad experienced turn out to be these types of a beloved figure both to Ted and his community. Where was that breezy dude when Martin was escalating up and so desperately wanted him?

Ted’s got loads of his own dragons to slay — cash and vocation woes, anger, loss, aimlessness — and he functions out in methods that may sense far more organic if we experienced a superior sense of who he was just before assembly the more mature Kenneth. Ted’s a probably much more interesting character than Martin, but the script too often retains them each bobbing along the surface. We tend to get a lot more bullet factors than high-quality points, specifically about such items as Martin’s hovering homophobia, his romance with unlikely girlfriend Lauren (Annapurna Sriram) and Kenneth’s obviously complicated historical past.

Even now, there are plenty of relatable dynamics and situations right here, as very well as a handful of respectable chuckles, to hold us invested in the film’s at times common if not generally predictable journey. Take note: A very good 10-moment trim may well have shored matters up properly.

On the supporting facet, there are partaking turns from Joanne Tucker as Martin’s onetime buddy and crush, Louis Cancelmi as a free of charge-spirited pool cleaner, Cheri Oteri taking part in a relentless serious estate agent and Jaden Waldman as an anxious neighbor child.

Cape Cod’s off-year locales are evocatively captured by cinematographer Federico Cantini.