Introducing the Dwights (2006)
Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 88
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 42
Despite a predictable storyline, Introducing the Dwights succeeds on the strength of its sweet and earnest portrayal of family dysfunction.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 30
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 12
Despite a predictable storyline, Introducing the Dwights succeeds on the strength of its sweet and earnest portrayal of family dysfunction.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 11,352
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Movie Info
An already-unstable household becomes a virtual battle zone when the son of a risquà (C) comedienne and a has-been singer finds mom meddling in his love life in director Cherie Nowlan's dysfunctional romantic comedy. Twenty-one-year-old Tim Dwight (Khan Chittenden) comes from a peculiar family; his mother, Jean (Brenda Blethyn), is a bawdy stage comic renowned for her scatological sense of humor and his father, John (Frankie J. Holden), is a faded country-music star who now works as a low-rent
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Cast
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Brenda Blethyn
Jean Dwight -
Khan Chittenden
Tim Dwight -
Emma Booth
Jill -
Frankie J. Holden
John -
Richard Wilson
Mark Dwight -
Rebecca Gibney
Lana -
Philip Quast
Ronnie -
Russell Dykstra
Shane -
Katie Wall
Kelly -
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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (47) | Rotten (43) | DVD (3)
Introducing the Dwights is funny and poignant, with a tour-de-force performance by British actress Brenda Blethyn.
Top CriticOne of those quirky Australian comedies that's almost as charming and sharp as it thinks it is.
It's time we all met the Dwights.
There's nothing lovely, however, about the movie's bombastic ending, but there are enough small moments until then to make this mixed-up experience vaguely worthwhile.
Sometimes Brenda Blethyn is content merely to nibble the scenery. In Introducing the Dwights, a drippy Australian family comedy caper, she chomps it to a pulp until we long for her straightforward monstrosity as a mother in Little Voice.
The broader characterizations may be off, but [director] Nowlan observes other small details with sensitive precision.
Uneven dysfunctional family dramedy for adults.
A movie that works beautifully when it's on point and feels sort of hollow when it's not.
Yes, Introducing the Dwights is a melodrama, but this melodrama handles its emotional manipulation with such subtle honesty that it takes on an impressive degree of realism.
The keep case describes it as an 'endearing comic gem.' I would describe it as a joyless melodrama.
...does little more than disappoint its audience with annoying characters and stereotypical situations.
A compassionate and brutally raw portrait of a woman torn apart by an exceedingly bad case of midlife crisis, and destroyed expectations beyond parenthood.
As lively as a slap in the face, this film struggles to connect with us due to an extremely unsympathetic central figure, but still wins us over with strong acting and a sweet romance.
It doesn't quite add up as a convincingly rounded drama, thanks largely to a tepid feelgood ending, but there are many good moments - and the expert acting from Blethyn alone is worth the price of a ticket.
If you're making a film about a stand-up, it helps if she has at least one good gag in her routine.
Brenda Blethyn gets her teeth into the role of a flamboyant showbiz monster who can't accept that her career has failed to make the big time.
This heartfelt, good-natured film grew on me, and Blethyn always commands attention.
You can't help but mourn for the hint of an intriguing film that could have been.
Promising turns from Booth and Chittenden aren't enough to save a slight and sloppy Aussie soap from a poor script, messy direction and Blethyn's overbearing performance.
It's Keith Thompson's script that struggles here, his sub-Little Voice histrionics leaving next to nothing for the cast to work with.
In the hands of Mike Leigh, this could be a masterpiece, as it is, it's forgettable fun.
A story slighter than the froth on top of a tube of Fosters.
Feels like a Sunday night TV drama - and not a very good one at that.
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By the way, this movie was called Clubland in Australia, but Introducing the Dwights in North America.