R.V.

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— Overview
— Cast and Crew
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I just returned from a screening of the newest Robin Williams film: R.V.

It is an excellent movie, if lighthearted comic farces can be excellent. What did I like about it, you may ask? Well for starters, let’s look at the cast. The troupe includes Robin Williams as Bob Munro, and Cheryl Hines as Jamie Munro. The Munro kids are played by music prodigy Jo Jo and Josh Hutcherson. Jeff Daniels appears as Travis Gornicke, and Kristen Chenoweth as Marie Jo Gornicke. A very talented cast indeed. Just the type you’d expect to make a good movie. And you’d be right!

Robin Williams has a way of portraying a dad that makes you feel good about being a dad. He is funny (funnier than most dads), clever, smart but still vulnerable and endearing. He also seems to love his children. My wife and I discussed whether Robin Williams might see something missing in the American family that he wants to address. Unlike the movie Hook, in which he plays a father who ignores his family to maintain his career, in this movie he still is trying to save his career but actually wants to be with his kids. His kids on the other hand have grown to hate him and consider him a good-for-nothing jerk. Perhaps he’s not been there for them when it mattered, but right now he is trying his best. His career is on the rocks (he’s being ousted by younger, cheaper MBAs) but the company can’t let him go yet because he really is the only guy who can sell. So he has to cancel a family trip to Hawaii to make a “last� sales call to convince a Mom and Pop soda company to go national by allowing his blowhard boss to buy them.

The fun begins when Bob tries to fool his family into an RV trip to Colorado instead of a planned dream trip to Hawaii. He can’t bring himself to tell his family the real reason the Hawaii trip is cancelled. His ruse is to sneak off to the meeting without telling his family—and they should be none the wiser.

Right.

R.V. is a lot of fun. RV trips are supposed to be the answer for those who want to see the country on their own terms. But judging by the few RV-themed movies I’ve seen in the past, RV trips are fraught with disaster and near-death experiences.

R.V. portrays two families. Two intact families, I might add. The Munros are LA’s finest, the perfect example of human suburban blight as it is manifest in the chic, hip and sophisticated, bored character of today’s middle class. They have so much to do that most of the time they are in sensory overload and can’t seem to think any creative thoughts. Other than smirks of course. Then there is the stereotypical RV family, the Gorlickes. When we and the Munros meet them, they come across as stupid, lower class, ignorant and way too happy to be a real family. They sing together, travel around the country and home school their kids (child abuse!). Of course we are initially led to think that these kids’ learning is the equivalent of chewing gum so they can work in the mines like their dad probably did.

Delightfully, we learn otherwise of the Gorlickes. We also learn otherwise of the Munros. Through the trauma of the RV trip, the Munros grow together, the Gorlickes stay together, and the big bad company that Bob works for shows its true colors and all is well. Except Bob no longer has a job. See the movie for how this happens as well as a sermon in the most modern religious movement in America: Environmentalism.

Now let me explain. Everything about this movie is tasteful, funny, clever and thoughtful. The Munros have funny things happen and they say funny things. The Gorlickes sail through life unmolested and they also say funny things. The soda pop company is exactly the type of company we’d all love to work for. The environmentalism is not preachy or over-emphasized. In fewer words: Everything in this film works.

You may be expecting a tired vacation flick with all the same old sight gags and slapstick humor. You don’t get it. You get a story and dialogue that, despite some horrific occurrences and several "now wait just a minute" moments, are still clever. The families turn out not to be stereotypical, nor are they derogatorily played. The kids turn out to all be very intelligent. The Munros’ daughter Cissy wants to go to Stanford—apparently, because a lot of upper middle class kids can afford to go. She doesn’t appear to have any real talent, just the expectation that money provides. On the other hand, the Gorlickes’ kids we find later are studying for college entrance exams at 15 and 13. They’ve both worked ahead in their home schooling so that they are ready to go to college. Academically ready to go, not because they can afford it.

One of the refreshing things about this story is that it rightly portrays that many home schoolers really do excel in school, probably because of the environment and focus on studies. Not to mention private tutoring. And, many middle class kids go to college who aren’t academically ready but still have the money to go.

The bottom line? R.V. is a funny film because it portrays so many of us truthfully. I mentioned farce and it is that. So it has some exaggerated situations. But if you’ve ever had to empty the waste water out of an uncooperative RV sump, you’ll think it’s a tame portrayal. R.V. doesn’t judge us, or try to pick at us. It doesn’t demean family culture. It actually empathizes. We get to see ourselves in believable and normal situations. And we are funny.

CONTINUE:
— Overview
— Cast and Crew
— Photo Pages