Review: Bergen and Hoffman Make 'As They Made Us' As They Made Us Watchable

Picture this: In one scene, the shot of a few drip-drip-drips of blood is followed immediately by a dripping faucet. Blood may be thicker than water, but there's a whole flood of water under the bridge (or washing it out) in the fraught family fights in "As They Made Us," Mayim Bialik's first feature as writer/director/producer. The film is compelling, but sometimes in the way of the highway car accident you find yourself looking at, but, like another reality of highway driving, takes a toll. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the rocky ride.

The story centers on a testy, ever-impatient wife (Candice Bergen) and often heroically patient daughter (Dianna Agron) dealing with the deteriorating medical condition of 72-year-old Eugene (Dustin Hoffman). There's much pain, anger, and frustration exploding or simmering – plus clinged-to hope – to handle... or mishandle. Depressing? In a word, yes. But skilled veterans Bergen and Hoffman can make almost anything watchably worthwhile, and Dianna Agron as that put-upon daughter (divorced mother of two) gains sympathy for her portrayal of the peacemaker. Fine as her long-estranged-from-the-family brother is Mayim Bialik's castmate from "The Big Bang Theory," Simon Helberg.

The "Us" in the title of "As They Made Us" refers to this brother and sister, and numerous flashbacks show the audience years of family dynamics. Parental bitterness, hot arguments, accusations, and general intensity are not ingredients for emotionally healthy children. Candice Bergen is almost unrelentingly vituperative and vindictive, fault-finding, and fuming. Underneath, though, we sense her caring and accept that her defiance and shell of self-protection are survival mechanisms. Still, you can see why others avoid her phone calls.

What do these kinfolk have in common? It must be more than the "F" word so liberally used and the questionable scenes about smelly farts. (Did any of the many fellow producers and more than 30 credited executive producers try to be prevailing cooler heads?) Some elements are heavy-handed (evidence of the family being Jewish is like product placement, with religious symbols in the kitchen, without a true payoff of how their faith gives them perspective). Others are barely addressed (such as a key character's parents turning out to both be women). And I wonder if a scene of driving through a tunnel with a bright, white light shining at its exit is meant to be a metaphor for that journey of death to get to the white light on The Other Side?

Can these characters, steeped in resentments and hurt, change? Will being told their patriarch's days are numbered motivate any of them to try? To succeed? We want to root for that, because movie-makers over the years have conditioned us to be believers in potential and healing – as they made us.

"As They Made Us" is laying in select movie theaters and such at-home providers as iTunes, Prime Video, Vudu, etc.