There are movies that shake you to your foundations, and make you look inside and ask questions. Folks! is just such a movie and the first question you ask is, what in the hell am I doing here. Selleck plays a perfectly contented Chicago stock market trader whose life begins to fall apart when he goes to visit his parents in Florida. His father is senile and his mother can no longer take care of the old man. Various disasters and plot contrivances bring the whole family including Selleck’s selfish sister (Ebersole) and her two obnoxious sons back home to Chicago. The strain begins to tell on our hero who loses his money, his wife and various body parts. Well, gosh, how much more do you have to know? I would think that Selleck’s name in the credits and the use of senility as a source of hilarity would just about do it. If you need more, how about this? When Selleck hits rock bottom, his parents suggest that he help them kill themselves so they’ll no longer be a burden to him. I would think sitting through this sort of thing would cause a little soul-searching in anyone. Don’t let it happen to you.
This article appears in May 8 • 1992 (Cover).