Brahmin Bulls
Where: Cineplex Odeon
When: Tonight, 6:30
Rating: 2/5 stars
Mahesh Pailoor’s slow-paced drama about the protracted reconciliation of a Boston engineering professor (Roshan Seth) and his estranged son, a petulant, divorce-bound westcoast architect (Sendhil Ramamurthy) might have sounded good on paper, but the father-and-son reunion plays like a glossy, mediocre TV movie.
Seth’s effectively restrained, often amusing performance as the widowed Indo-American family patriarch is a highlight.
Mary Steenburgen’s respectable appearance in the thankless role of an old flame he reconnects with in a shaky subplot, and Michael Lerner’s amusing turn as a jaded academic colleague also help make up for the clichés, contrivances and winceworthy tennis metaphors that permeate this by-the-numbers dramedy.
One of the film’s biggest problems is that Ramamurthy’s bland one-note character, the shallow Indo-American son whose lifestyle choices are a thorn in his traditional father’s side, is as hostile as he is handsome, and far from likable.
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