Parenthood

A feel-good sitcom about three generations of middle-class California suburban dwelling parents trying to deal with their vexing children as they experience growing pains.

It's hard to imagine a theme more universal and filled with human pitfalls than parenthood. And it's hard to imagine a movie treatment of that theme more humane and filled with gentle sympathy than director Ron Howard's Parenthood.

Ambitiously probing every anxiety-ridden corner of the suburban mum-and-dad experience, some of its interconnecting story strands work better than others.

Parenthood gets a lot of emotional mileage out of kiddie antics, but Howard has, thankfully, given us a little more.

The fulcrum of the film is Martin. It's an adventurous and successful stroke of casting that takes advantage of what the audience expects from him.