Memories of Me Reviews

Cowritten by star Billy Crystal and directed by Henry Winkler (TV's "The Fonz" in his dubious feature debut), MEMORIES OF ME is a hopelessly maudlin father-and-son drama brimming with insipid dialog, cardboard characters, misty sentimentality, and pat resolutions to hackneyed problems. Crystal is a wise-cracking New York Jewish doctor, Abbie Polin, who suffers a mild heart attack. His girl friend, Lisa (JoBeth Williams), urges him to fly to Los Angeles and see his estranged father, Abe Polin (Alan King). Lisa shows up in LA unannounced, and the film becomes a series of scenes in which Abbie and Abe bicker with each other. The plot develops through a melodramatic, gratuitous crisis. Although MEMORIES OF ME was no doubt a sincere and heartfelt effort from all concerned, it is executed in such an inept and cloying manner as to be positively mawkish. Only King's robust characterization, while cliched, shoots some life and humor into this otherwise flaccid movie.