Audiences left 2000's blockbuster hit Meet the Parents starring Ben Stiller, wondering, "What kind of people would name their child Gaylord Focker?" Meet the Fockers answered just that. Released on December 2, 2004, the sequel brought back the comedic cast of the first movie with the addition of Barbra Streisand and Dennis Hoffman as Greg Focker's parents, Roz and Bernie.
Streisand and Hoffman seem like an unlikely pair and even unlikelier parents for Ben Stiller, but casting proved to be quite appropriate. It is easy to see how warm, goofy Hoffman could be Greg Focker's liberal, stay-at-home dad and straight-forward Streisand could be Greg's free-speaking, sex therapist mom.
It is not surprising that screenwriters Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg set up Greg and Pam's (Teri Polo) parents to be so different. The contrast set up hilarious conversations and the continuation of Greg's desire to gain acceptance from father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro) and maintain his place in the "circle of trust."
The plot is simple: before Greg and Pam's wedding, their parents must meet. But for Jack this is the last test to determine if Greg is right for his daughter, telling him, "If your family's circle joins in my family's circle, they'll form a chain. I can't have a chink in my chain."
The Byrnes and their grandson, Little Jack, travel to Miami with Jack in his souped-up RV to spend a mishap-filled weekend with the Fockers. DeNiro shines in his role as the family's alpha male. Being the proud grandfather that he is, he strives to nurture Little Jack into a genius, prescribing to the Ferber Method, only allowing him to play with a collection of "approved" toys including an Einstein puppet and an abacus, and providing him with a rubber breast molded after his own mother's to nurse on.
Hoffman is just as memorable as Jack's polar opposite. He celebrates his son's mediocrity with the Wall of Gaylord and rejects the Ferber Method, telling Jack, "We used the Focker method. We hugged and kissed our little prince until there was no tomorrow. We Fockerized him."
Meet the Fockers set the record for the best Christmas weekend opening ever, earning $44.7 million. Its five-day total came to $68.5 million. According to a CBS Entertainment article in Los Angeles Associated Press on December 26, 2004, it "succeeded in part because of an aggressive ad campaign, including the release of the DVD of the original Meet the Parents, as well as the return of Streisand to the big screen after an eight-year absence."
The film explored the gamut of familial relationships and was even heart-warming at times. That is not to say that it lacked comedic value, ranging from slapstick, like when the Fockers' dog Moses gets flushed down the RV's toilet or Little Jack's hands get glued to a bottle of liquor while Greg is babysitting, to sexual innuendos to crude, gross-out humor, like when Greg's parents reveal that the memento that Pam's mother, Dina (Blythe Danner), found in the Focker scrapbook is Greg's foreskin from his circumcision.
While Meet the Fockers is a hilarious good time, patrons looking for an intelligent, thought-provoking movie should look elsewhere. Fans of Meet the Parents should also be warned to expect a slightly different tone in its sequel with more of a focus on the Fockers-Byrneses dynamic.
The film's tagline, "And you thought your parents were embarrassing," captures its essence perfectly. Sure they may not tell your in-laws that you lost your virginity to the nanny, Isabel, or frame your jock-strap, but everyone can relate to being embarrassed by their parents at one time or another.