Like Father, a Netflix original film about a bride who is abandoned at the altar and the father who she hasn’t seen seen in twenty five years who take a cruise. It’s slightly better than an episode of the Love Boat and more than a commercial for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.
Kelsey Grammer and Kristen Bell as the workaholic father and daughter who missed out on the joys of family, keep it believable and poignant by delivering constant nuance performances. The moment they connect seems well earned.
It is also fun seeing Seth Rogen, in an extended cameo, playing against type as the cruise fling: a square decent human being who has never taken drugs, not even marijuana. He isn’t always successful, but he does his best to please his real life wife, the director Lauren Miller Rogen.
It all stays afloat for the first hour before submerging in feel good cliches and will they/won’t they finally reconcile anxieties. It is all pleasant, but it doesn’t inspire me to take a Royal Caribbean Cruise. Beside, I am a Viking kind of person myself.
For a Netflix film, Like Father is a grand enough voyage.
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