For a kid from the posh suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio Paul Newman has a remarkable affinity for playing blue collar men. This is a guy who knows the value of hard work and it's his greatest disappointment in life is that he hasn't passed on that value to his children, Katherine Borowitz and Robby Benson.It's Benson who Newman worries the most about. He wants to be a writer, but that just doesn't happen over night. One has to get out into the world and acquire a little life experience to learn what one wants to write about. The only one that didn't apply to was Emily Dickinson. Benson cites Hemingway as getting rejected 300 times before getting some money for his thoughts. But there certainly was a man who had himself a lot of life experience and earned a few dollars to pay his own way.I could understand Newman very well since I came from a family of uncles just like Newman on my mother's side. I could understand Benson less so since all he wants is surf and sex. He tries working at some dead end jobs, his scenes with Morgan Freeman at a cardboard box factory and trying to repossess Ossie Davis's car are his best in the film. In fact Newman's tragedy is that health issues cause him to stop working and he won't acknowledge them. But it's Newman and Benson that's the heart of Harry&Son. Father and son Keach come to a kind of understanding toward the end. The film is not the best from either Newman or Benson, but nothing to be ashamed of here.

I was never a fan of Paul Newman, but every once in a while he impressed me. On the other hand, I was (growing up) always a fan of Robbie Benson, and here -- again -- he does not disappoint.What does disappoint is the film, in general. It has quite a few good ingredients, including Newman and Benson, and certain segments are pretty interesting and decently done. Unfortunately, the separate parts of the film never quite come together as a whole.Harry is a construction worker who is having vision and neck problems, resulting in a near industrial accident that could heave been deadly; he gets fired. Looks for work, can't find any. Robbie Benson is his son who thinks he's a writer but actually details cars; he could work, but he thinks what's available is beneath him.Benson's best scene is when he and his ex-girlfriend are trying to "figure out" what happened. It's as good as any acting Benson ever did, though this is not my favorite Benson movie.The problem is that this film just sorta drifts along seemingly going nowhere. It's rather episodic, but the episodes don't seem to really fit together. The second problem is that a viewer wants to have some general idea of where a film is going...even if he or she ends up wrong. Well, here you just wonder where this film is wandering to. At least it isn't maudlin.Unfortunately, some of the highlights of the film are small supporting parts played by Ossie Davis and Morgan Freeman. Ellen Barki, Joanne Woodward, and Wilford Brimley have small, but significant roles. But the film really belongs to Paul Newman and Robby Benson, and I think more to Benson.

Fans of Newman and/or Benson or of undemanding, character-driven films may enjoy this examination of a father-son relationship. Newman plays a wrecking ball operator who is experiencing jarring pain and vision issues, which cost him his job. His pride won't allow him to accept just anything else. Benson is his son, an aspiring writer, who is content to detail cars and go surfing, not worrying about what the future holds for him. Despite an underlying affection between the two, tension arises because Newman wants to work, but can't, while Benson is able-bodied, but doesn't seem to want to hold on to any sort of job. Newman, a widower of about two years, considers the affection of a quirky pet shop owner (Woodward) and conflicts with his married daughter (Borowitz) over her drippy husband and her own selfishness. Meanwhile, Benson is being seduced by a horny secretary (Ivey) when he's not pining over his lost girlfriend (Barkin) who is pregnant with some other man's child. Newman is genial and engrossing, even though his character is rather curmudgeonly and sometimes cantankerous. He plays a workaday everyman and plays it well (although very few everymen look like Paul Newman!) He has a very different sense of humor and those who enjoy it should enjoy him. Benson, who almost wears clothes in the film, is more of an acquired taste with his whispery voice and overstated expressions. He is amiable and shares a palpable chemistry with Newman despite the fact that they don't exactly look as if they could be related. (To be truthful, their relationship, on more than one occasion, reads as a bit homosexual!) In any case, the actors work hard to put across the father-son dynamic and it manages to emerge. Barkin, in one of her earliest roles, does a nice job. Woodward seems to be enjoying the wackier aspects of her character. She shares a few telling moments with her real-life husband Newman. In another spot of bizarre casting, Brimley turns up as Newman's brother (!), who offers him a spot in his surplus business. Ivey is interesting to watch, but not particularly believable. Several of the actors, such as Borowitz, reveal their stage background through their over-emoting before the camera. Some compelling supporting roles are filled by Davis, as the target of a car repossession, Freeman, as one of Benson's bosses, and Chaykin as the head of a repo gang. The film opens vividly with footage of a building demolition and the episodic nature of the piece keeps things moving for the most part, but there is also a disjointed feel. The script seems almost like brief sketches instead of progressive scenes. There are odd continuity instances, punctuated by some of the more distinctive costumes. It looks like the storyline was played with a little in the editing room. (There is also a very obviously tacked-on or re-shot ending, in which Barkin has freshly trimmed hair and the terrain is Californian instead of Floridian.) It's surprising that Newman would direct a film with so many divergent story threads, lack of attention to the details and pat situations. Still, there are enough charming or touching or amusing vignettes to satisfy most viewers who merely want to enjoy a movie.

Spoilers Harry and his son Howie live together two years after Harry's wife died. There is a daughter who got married and apparently doesn't get along with her father. Harry operates a wrecking ball but has to give up his job due to vision problems (he almost kills a co-worker; the vision problems are just a symptom of something much worse). He wants to continue working but can't find anything appropriate (He won't be a security guard and he won't work in his brother's store). Howie was a valedictorian but works in a car wash while attempting to be a writer, surfing when he is not doing one or the other. When Howie must get a real job, he doesn't have a lot of trouble because of an offer by a good-looking woman who seems to want just one thing. The job itself is not at all what Howie wants, and after he gets fired his father accuses him of being lazy and a quitter. Both father and son have potential love interests: The best friend of Harry's wife has trouble communicating her feelings for Harry, who can't see the obvious. Howie's former girlfriend is pregnant, and apparently the baby isn't his, so we are led to believe that's why they broke up, though we are never definitely told. In one funny scene (at least it was to me) Harry goes back to work in the middle of the night, on the same building he was tearing down when the movie began, waking up the neighbors. Of course he had to lie to the security guard to get to the site, and the cops bring him home. Paul Newman is very good as Harry, and in fact this is an enjoyable movie with lots of good performances. I wish I had seen more of Wilford Brimley (Harry's brother) and Morgan Freeman (Howie's boss). Father and son get along pretty well, considering everything. I suppose all families have their fights. I could have done without the profanity, which was pretty potent even after being cleaned up for TV. The opening scenes of the demolition of the building were wonderfully done; I hope at least some of the cameras were unmanned. Howie's job was also exciting to watch, with good action shots of the normal operations of the machinery and then of the chaos that follows when Howie gets involved in the process. A good time overall.