66 | AUGUST 26 • 2021 

T

he Meyersons are an 
average Jewish family 
living in New York 
City. They face the typical 
(and sometimes petty) ups and 
downs of everyday life, from 
issues as minor as picking out a 
bakery item from a food truck 
to tackling existential crises and 
whether God really exists.
In The Magnificent 
Meyersons, an 88-minute 
drama film that’s entirely dia-
logue-based, we follow the 
family through a seemingly 
ordinary day in the city. They’re 
complicated, but relatable. They 
bicker, they laugh, they cry, 
and they fall in and out of love. 
However, they’re all coping with 
the same problem: the fact that 
their father Morty (Richard 
Kind) abandoned the family 
years earlier.
Now, the Meyerson family 
is led by matriarch and oncol-
ogist Terri (Kate Mulgrew). 
She was left alone to raise four 
children: Roland (Ian Kahn), 
an overachiever and hypochon-
driac; Daphne (Jackie Burns), a 
new mom struggling with her 
marriage and the idea of more 
children; Daniel (Daniel Eric 
Gold), a young man studying 
to become a rabbi; and Susie 
(Shoshannah Stern), an ambi-
tious real estate agent who is 
deaf and in a lesbian relation-

ship with Tammy (Lauren 
Ridloff).
On this presumably normal 
day, the Meyerson siblings and 
their mother go about their 
everyday affairs. In the first 30 
minutes of the film, it’s easy to 
fall in love with the Meyersons. 
After all, they’re not unlike you 
and me and tackle each situ-
ation with a sense of humor. 
But their lives are suddenly 
upturned with breaking news: 
aliens might actually exist.

ENTER THE ALIENS
Their phones beep with a 
breaking news update about a 
signal coming from outer space 
that can’t be natural. Like oth-
ers, the siblings panic: Is this 
good or bad news for humani-
ty? What do the aliens want?
Daphne, already struggling 
with an existential crisis, sud-
denly decides that time is pre-
cious, and she can quit her job. 
Daniel, meanwhile, ponders 
God’s existence with a Catholic 
priest wondering the same thing.
It was at this point that the 
film, written and directed by 
Evan Oppenheimer, turned 
from charming to unpleasantly 
comical. The plot twist just 
didn’t fit, despite researchers 
recently discovering similar 
signals in outer space. The 
first half hour of the film felt 

like watching the beginning of 
a great coming-of-age movie 
with tons of potential, while the 
remaining 50-some minutes 
was the equivalent of a bad play 
with an indiscernible plot that 
just didn’t make sense.
The Magnificent Meyersons
would have done extraordinari-
ly well had it stuck to the stories 
of the siblings and their mother 
and how they navigated life’s 
ordinary events. It was a missed 
opportunity that pivoted where 
and when it didn’t need to 
pivot. Plus, a second plot twist 
soon surfaced that revealed 
the unexpected return of the 
Meyerson patriarch, Morty.

DAD REAPPEARS
Though the exact years that 
Morty was absent from the fam-
ily structure aren’t revealed, one 
can estimate Morty was gone 
some 20-25 years. Yet, here he 
is, showing up as a surprise 
guest at a family dinner but in 
much worse condition than 
previously seen. Throughout 
the film, Morty is shown in 
flashbacks that slowly reveal 
why the father left: to tackle and 
treat his debilitating depres-
sion in Oslo, Norway, never to 
return until now.
Naturally, some siblings are 
angry, particularly Roland. 
Others, like Daphne and Daniel, 

seem to welcome Morty with 
a second chance. Having left 
the children at a young age, the 
youngest siblings never under-
stood their father’s reason for 
leaving. But as he stands before 
them, hands uncontrollably 
shaking and much grayer and 
frailer than they remember, 
feelings melt away.
When Terri asks Morty what 
happened to him — had he 
experienced a stroke? — he 
reveals that two years ago, he 
was struck by lightning. It was 
another twist to the story that 
just wasn’t believable. 
And that’s where the film 
stops: just moments after 
Morty’s return, big reveal and 
awkward reunion with his fami-
ly. The ending felt cringeworthy 
after such a strong opening 
and left me wondering why the 
director chose this route, when 
there was so much potential 
leaving the story where it started.
Without the aliens and light-
ning strike, The Magnificent 
Meyersons could have been a 
wonderful film but it sadly took 
too many wrong turns. 

The Magnificent Meyersons had a 

limited theatrical release in New York 

City and Los Angeles. The film can be 

viewed virtually through the websites of 

the theaters showing the film, which can 

be found at argotpictures.com.

ARTS&LIFE
FILM REVIEW

Too many wrong turns
with aimless plot twists.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Matriarch Kate Mulgrew 
(right) and her mother, 
played by Barbara Barrie

