Ben Machado and the weakest link was the up and coming business hot shot played by Jake Hoffman (Dustin Hoffman's son.) He was too young and goofy to play a ruthless guy moving up in the business world.id have to say, i disagree with you. he was not supposed to play a ruthless guy moving up in the business world. I believe his role was that of an young and goofy guy who is accidentally moving up and moving into Leos spot. what i got from the film was that everything that was happening to Leo's job in regards to the young guy was all accidental or unintentional. he seemed to never want to take Leo's spot and he thought he was doing good at what he was hired to do. maybe thats just my take on it

herbrude It wasn't perfect but it was enjoyable, and contained many situations that we could identify with. It's a shame that Peter is having such a hard time getting this film widely distributed when there's so much garbage out there. Eli Wallach was wonderful. On a negative side, I thought casting Bogosian as a Rabbi was a horror although it was meant to be satiric and Harris Yulin was perfect as his boss. My wife and I thought that the idea of having Leo ( or Peter Riegert) admit to Betsy's husband that they had just had sex was kind of ridiculous --- no one in his right mind does that and Leo was not nuts, he was just a little mixed up. You can see how bright he was when he was in his focus groups, and the security phone with Gregory Peck's voice was a riot.

ghecht11 I screened this film at its Kansas City opening and found it an enjoyable and revealing tale of family life and a slice of modern Americana with more that one surprise and twist along the way. It is a film of depth and subtle textures that engages the audience by layers as it explores the personalities and relationships that propel the central characters through their lives. Peter Reigert and Isabella Rossellini turn in sensitive performances with a wonderful counterpoint provided by Eli Wallach in the role of the family patriarch.Reigert's direction is cogent and trim, based on a literate, thoughtful script by Gerald Shapiro.

kensharp Peter Riegert has been bringing this movie, which he directed and co-wrote, from city to city to build word of mouth. It's worth seeing if it comes to your town, especially if you like character-driven comedy/drama. Eric Bogosian steals the film as Rabbi Fink, and there's plenty of other good performances from a great cast which includes Isabella Rosselini, Eli Wallach, Rita Moreno, and Beverly D'Angelo. The story itself is pretty low-key, about an advertising executive (Riegert) coming to grips with a variety of mid-life issues, all delivered with gentle humor. Based on the title story from Gerald Shapiros's collection, "Bad Jews and Other Stories".