At Middleton – Netfilx DVD

If you are at the stage of life where you are dropping off your children at college or taking them on a tour of different colleges (like Robin and I are), you will probably enjoy this comedy. Edith (Vera Farmiga) is a free-spirited, high-end children's furniture retailer, taking her daughter, Audrey (Taissa Farniga), to Middleton for a college tour.  This is a small, picturesque college which reminds me of my own alma-mater, Harpur College.  Audrey has her heart set on going there because she idolizes a world-renowned linguistics professor on the Middleton faculty. George (Andy Garcia) is an up-tight, bow-tie-wearing heart surgeon, also taking his son, Conrad (Spencer Lofranco), to tour the school, although Conrad has no interest in going there. He is just humoring his father, who loves the place. Edith and George arrive simultaneously in the parking lot, with Edith stealing George's space.  At first, while on the official tour, they get on each other's nerves, but then they start appreciating each other and break off from the official tour to spend time alone. They wind up having some interesting and humorous adventures. (Their offspring also spend some time together, although their interactions are not nearly as funny or interesting.) The film alludes to the stress on a marriage once the children grow up and leave home, although this issue isn't explored in any depth.  The film is consistently amusing, often funny, and, at times, even poignant.  Farmiga and Garcia have a comfortable chemistry together. Garcia does an especially fine job playing a tightly-wound but perceptive and sensitive man. Some of the scenes don't work, and at times it gets over-the-top, but, on the whole, there are enough good scenes to make it worth renting. I'm going to take Noah on a tour of Middleton, and maybe I'll even enroll myself, too!