OUT ON FILM 2020 REVIEW: Paul Riccio’s GIVE OR TAKE twists the Yuppie returning home comedy formula into fun new shapes
When Martin’s mother died, his father promptly came out of the closet and shacked up with Ted (Norbert Leo Butz), their gardener. Six years later, it’s Dad’s turn to buy the farm, leaving Martin (Jamie Effros) his large house, in which Ted still lives. It’s up to the New York-dwelling son to make the trip to Cape Cod and sort his family affairs out…much as he may not want to.
The “successful protagonist revisits small-town home and learns what’s really important in life” subgenre is a well-worn road, usually as romantic comedy (Sweet Home Alabama, Just Friends). But with Give or Take, which screens as part of Out on Film, director Paul Riccio is canny enough to set the tropes we expect in motion, then knock most of them in completely different directions. Yes, there’s a long-lost love interest in bartender Emma (Joanne Tucker), as contrasted with Martin’s current, obnoxiously superficial girlfriend Lauren (Annapurna Sriram). And of course Martin must ultimately choose between basically humane and essentially materialistic approaches to his inheritance. But the script, cowritten by Effros with Riccio, is less interested in making Martin happy than it is in keeping his story honest.
Indeed, Martin isn’t even particularly likable. He’s uptight and whiny, while Ted, who looks like a younger version of ’80s wrestler “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, is a chill dude who uses organic salt in his pool instead of chlorine, and doesn’t get wi-fi because dial-up Internet still serves his needs. A lesser movie might feel the need to show us flashbacks, indicating how Martin’s dad changed from being a distant, cold father to a fun, out-and-proud neo-hippie that everyone loved. But you don’t get that in real life, nor here – what Ted and Martin say, and what they don’t say, is all we have to go on. If you were to actually meet Martin, nobody would tell you he’s a bore because his father was mean. You’d have to judge based on what’s presented.
Broadening the comedy some, Cheri Oteri appears as an extremely opportunistic realtor, while Boardwalk Empire‘s Louis Cancelmi steals the show as a pothead poolboy whose seemingly dense waters run deeper than expected. Along with more grounded eccentrics like Emma, they feel like the sorts of folks Ted might be surrounded by. And for the most part, homophobia isn’t even a factor, except arguably in Ted’s head sometimes. Nobody treats his coupling with Martin’s dad as unusual in that regard – only in that it brought out a different side of the guy.
None of which would work if Effros and Butz couldn’t sell the central conflict/dynamic. But both bring an impressive lack of vanity to the table, willing to risk being unlikable for the sake of a truthful outcome. For all this to pay off, you have to want to hug them at the end, but at different times you may want to slap both along the way. Even when they grow, as movie characters must, there’s no guarantee the old habits won’t creep back. It’s not hard to imagine a sitcom starting with this premise, one in which Martin must move back to Cape Cod permanently and room with Ted, and the sheer fact that this kind of relationship has been so normalized and never questioned is part of what’s great about Give or Take. The rest is on the cast, and they give us plenty to take away
