Small Time Movie Review Trailer Stars Christopher Meloni
'Small Time' Movie Review, Trailer Stars Christopher Meloni Movies for Grownups
Tweet This! Follow Meg Grant YouTube: See reviews and trailers at Imagine the upwardly mobile Barbara's chagrin when Freddy follows his high school graduation with the announcement that he's decided not to enroll at after all; instead he plans to move in with his dad and become a permanent part of the Diamond Motors sales team. The ensuing comedy rolls along at a brisk and often unpredictable pace, thankfully steering clear of heavy-handed lessons about greed vs. honesty or the morality of opportunism. And though the father-son bonding we witness is touching — and sure feels good — Small Time is never overly sentimental. In a film whose opening seems to presage mawkishness — in a voiceover, Freddy describes it as the story of the summer that "changed my life" — Surnow manages to keep the drama and the histrionics subdued. Which is precisely how, in the real world, people sometimes leave the biggest mark on those they care the deepest about. Meg Grant is West Coast Editor of AARP The Magazine.
' Small Time' Is a Little Movie With a Big Heart
A divorced dad helps his boy become a man in this realistic coming-of-age tale
Rating: R Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes Stars: Xander Berkeley, Devon Bostick, Christopher Meloni, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Norris Director: Joel Surnow Small Time plays well on the big screen. The directing debut of veteran TV writer (co-creator of Fox's long-running series ), the film is loosely based on Surnow's own experiences as a teenager growing up in Los Angeles, where his father sold carpeting and drapes door to door. Everett Collection "Small Time" stars Christopher Meloni as a divorced dad and a used-car salesman in the San Fernando Valley in the '70s. Al Klein, the father character in Small Time, is brilliantly cast in , known for his long-standing roles on the small screen's , and the current sitcom . As we watch Al's son, Freddy, come of age (he's played by a gangly, goofy , from ), we simultaneously witness Klein growing throughout Meloni's performance. And that's the beauty of this movie: It shows us why parenting is a two-way street — an enterprise that, in the best of circumstances, can be an opportunity for personal development on all sides. Klein and his sidekick, Ash Martini ( of and ), are used-car salesmen who, operating from a colorful lot in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, could sell ice to Eskimos, as the saying goes. A modest but steady business, Diamond Motors has always met Klein's needs just fine. But back when Freddy was a toddler, it didn't even begin to satisfy Al's ambitious wife, Barbara (finely portrayed by of Blue Bloods). So Barbara left her car-salesman hubby for her wildly successful venture capitalist of a boss, Chick. (As played by , also of 24, Chick overflows with suitably highbrow arrogance.) AARP Members!Get Social With Meg
Check out and then on this year's best filmsTweet This! Follow Meg Grant YouTube: See reviews and trailers at Imagine the upwardly mobile Barbara's chagrin when Freddy follows his high school graduation with the announcement that he's decided not to enroll at after all; instead he plans to move in with his dad and become a permanent part of the Diamond Motors sales team. The ensuing comedy rolls along at a brisk and often unpredictable pace, thankfully steering clear of heavy-handed lessons about greed vs. honesty or the morality of opportunism. And though the father-son bonding we witness is touching — and sure feels good — Small Time is never overly sentimental. In a film whose opening seems to presage mawkishness — in a voiceover, Freddy describes it as the story of the summer that "changed my life" — Surnow manages to keep the drama and the histrionics subdued. Which is precisely how, in the real world, people sometimes leave the biggest mark on those they care the deepest about. Meg Grant is West Coast Editor of AARP The Magazine.