World's Greatest Dad

Many of the films shown at Seattle's film festival were made here, the majority of them independents. Such is the case with World’s Greatest Dad.

Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher and failed writer. And he is hardly the world’s greatest dad. His teenage son, Kyle, who is crude and cruel and virtually friendless, seems to have no moral or ethical compass and runs roughshod over his weak-willed single parent. Williams is terribly sympathetic in his failure to discipline his son, and his rebuffed efforts to bond with the teen – dinner, movies, anything – are heartbreaking.

But this is a black comedy, one of the darkest American comedies I've seen, and when Kyle dies in an accidental and undignified manner, his grieving father pens a suicide note leading all to believe that Kyle was a friendless genius who has taken the easy way out. Having redefined his worthless son, Lance finds that his life takes a remarkable turn for the better, as others (who previously despised Kyle) see him as something of a martyr.

Director Bobcat Goldthwait steers the film on a fine line between pathos and farce and manages to succeed. But World's Greatest Dad is not for everyone. It’s a comedy derived from a lone teenager's inability to fit in and subsequent death, and had Kyle been portrayed as the least bit sympathetic the film would not have worked.