AFI

Red Roses and Petrol

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

A Rock 'N' Read Prods. presentation of an Alfred Sapse production in association with Abu Media. Produced by Tamar Simon Hoffs, Gail Wager Stayden, Georganne Aldrich Haller, Alfred Sapse. Executive producers, Josh Hoffs, Susanna Hoffs. Co-producer, Pierce Boyce. Directed by Tamar Simon Hoffs. Screenplay, Hoffs, Gail Wager Stayden; story, Hoffs, based upon the play by Joseph O'Connor.
 
With: Malcolm McDowell, Olivia Tracey, Heather Jurgenson, Max Beesley, Greg Ellis, Susan Lynch, Catherine Farrell, Sean Lawlor, Robert Easton, Aubrey Morris.
 

A limp crack at the old tearjerker chestnut about a dysfunctional family reunited on the occasion of its patriarch's death, "Red Roses and Petrol" supplies evidence as to why director and co-writer Tamar Simon Hoffs hasn't helmed a feature film since 1987's "The Allnighter," duly remembered among that period's crass teenybopper fare. A world premiere at AFI fest, pic's future looks about as promising as the prognosis received by Dad in pic's opening scene: Three months to live.

Adapted from a play by Joseph O'Connor, stagy pic unfolds mostly during the wake for Dubliner Enda Doyle (Malcolm McDowell), during which his wife and three grown children find themselves together under the same roof for the first time in years. What follows is a long day's journey into a terminally predictable night, complete with revelations about childhood abuse, sibling rivalries and alleged infidelities. It all rings particularly hollow in light of several recent pics ("Last Orders" and "The Barbarian Invasions" chief among them) that have explored similar terrain with much greater emotion and intelligence. Despite top billing, McDowell appears almost exclusively in video-diary-style flashback.

Camera (Technicolor), Nancy Schreiber; editor, Dathai Keane; music, Seth Pedowitz; production designer, Julieann Getman. Reviewed at AFI Los Angeles Film Festival (American Directions), Nov. 15, 2003. Running time: 97 MIN.