TheRetroCritic

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)  was released on Netflix this month after a respectable performance at the Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Dustin Hoffman as Harold Meyerowitz, an ageing sculptor whose children have grown up resenting him somewhat based on their divisive upbringing. Harold constantly confuses his own sons' childhoods since his art was and still is always at the forefront of his mind with his daughter Jean (Elizabeth Marvel) trailing far behind. Danny (Adam Sandler) and Matthew (Ben Stiller) are very different from each other as a result of Harold's lack of interest: the former is a down-and-out musician with a limp, the latter is a successful yet high-strung private wealth expert. The film follows this family as they are forced to reconnect when Harold suffers a significant health scare. These are "New and Selected" stories in that, while the film is mostly linear, it skips through portions of

Basing a film on such an obvious metaphor usually calls for either artistic subtlety or visual compensation in order to make the core idea work on more than one shallow level. Thankfully, the points and emotions The Tree tries to put across are safely transmitted but with a little more creativity, the film could have been so much more. For one thing, the idea of a kid's dad being reincarnated into a tree is silly enough without making it as obvious as possible! No mention of the actual "reincarnation" could have added some welcome mystery to the whole thing and made some of the symbolism much less in-your-face. I mean, Charlotte Gainsbourg starts an affair with a new man and the tree crashes into the house shortly after... Why...you don't think... Could it be...? Is...is the tree/dead husband UNHAPPY about all this?! Duh, have you SEEN a movie before? But I'm being mean. Honestly this isn't a bad film at all. Visually it looks nice, the child ac