Great character development aides in establishing members of the McDermott family who undergo a crisis when pops Jim Haynie decides to sell the family business (a popular chicken restaurant) without consulting the three sons (Timothy Quill, Dylan McDermott and Sean Astin) who hoped one day, they'd take over. Haynie reveals that he has come to hate chickens, and that isn't enough to pacify them, sending McDermott out to find another dream job and breaks up the family.
It's after the announcement that dad makes that the film pretty much stops cold and has a bunch of diversions that makes it pretty boring. Melinda Dillon is good as the housewife and mother who used to sing locally, and Stockard Channing is good in the supporting role of McDermott's older girlfriend who is running for public office. Some viewers may be put off by the scene where the boys open up the restaurant and are tossing chickens around like footballs, but I found it funny. Maybe the air tenderized the birds, so who knows. Everybody in the film does a good job acting wise, but it's one of those films that seemingly ran out of steam during the screenplay writing process, and became more slice of life than plot driven. It's one of those TV movie like films that somehow got a theater release that you can watch ones, enjoy the people on screen but basically forget about it right afterwards.
It's after the announcement that dad makes that the film pretty much stops cold and has a bunch of diversions that makes it pretty boring. Melinda Dillon is good as the housewife and mother who used to sing locally, and Stockard Channing is good in the supporting role of McDermott's older girlfriend who is running for public office. Some viewers may be put off by the scene where the boys open up the restaurant and are tossing chickens around like footballs, but I found it funny. Maybe the air tenderized the birds, so who knows. Everybody in the film does a good job acting wise, but it's one of those films that seemingly ran out of steam during the screenplay writing process, and became more slice of life than plot driven. It's one of those TV movie like films that somehow got a theater release that you can watch ones, enjoy the people on screen but basically forget about it right afterwards.