Movie Review - Father of Invention

Father of Invention (2010) - Kevin Spacey is one of those actors that I will always watch.  So this one had to be added to my queue solely on the basis that he stars in it.  I don't remember seeing any publicity at the time and the title means nothing to me.
   Spacey plays an infomercial superstar Robert Axle who falls when one of his products, a combination ab exerciser/TV remote, ends up costing users a finger due to poor design.  He does eight years in prison and comes to discover that his family and his company have moved on without him.  He has to try and find his place in the world and in his family once again.

So in the end this is a classic redemption movie.  Or at least it tries.  There are some very good moments in "Father of Invention".  They center largely around Axle and his daughter (played by Camilla Belle).  That's where the heart of the story can be found.  Unfortunately writer/director Trent Cooper (he shares the writer credit with co-producer Jonathan D. Krane) didn't choose to focus on the heart and ends up with a scattershot approach to the story that just drains the movie of any energy at all.  Astoundingly in the mini-documentary on the making of the movie he has the audacity to claim that watching the movie reminds him of Billy Wilder.  I was just aghast.  Wilder's worst day was better than this.

Having said that this is not a terrible movie.  It's simply not a very good one.  Some very good ideas and a perfectly workable cast never get a chance to really get on a role.  The opening 15-20 minutes are probably the worst.  The script reaches for cliché after cliché.  Seriously, we have a man hating lesbian gym teacher character.  Worse yet she becomes Robert Axle's love interest.  I wish I were kidding.  Axle's wife(Virginia Madsen) is a caricature, and his daughter's roommates (the man hater Phoebe played by Heather Graham and cute, rather vapid Donna played by Anna Anissimova) have no important role to fulfill.  The movie is filled with characters who could have been interesting and important to the story but are never developed.  Meanwhile we don't get nearly enough between Spacey and Belle who have some pretty nice chemistry.

I watched this movie on the perfect day for it.  A chilly, rainy Saturday afternoon when I had nothing better to do.

Rating - *** Worth A Look (but only barely)