It Runs in the Family

Jesse Wigutow's screenplay is one of those marvels of economy, idiomatic facility and well-chosen detail that knows exactly when to cut away from a scene without grinding it into your face.

Manages to sidestep the potential overload of cheap sentimentality -- an intimate dance between an elderly couple registers with heartbreaking sweetness -- and evokes a lingering sense of loss.

Family goes easy on the schmaltz, and the catastrophes have the puncturing feel of real life.

As an actor, Kirk Douglas still has more to give; too bad he didn't have more to work with.

The question is not how bad this excuse for a domestic comedy is (medium cringe), but how the gifted Fred Schepisi got suckered into directing a vanity project.

The family's all here and surely, with all their accumulated years of wisdom, they should have been able to distinguish a cloying script when one fell into their hands.

Achingly long and pointless, "Runs" is a movie about family that's dishonest in its presentation of every relationship.