Parenthood

Parenthood Movie Poster

In this 1989 movie, Steve Martin plays Gil Buckman, a good natured father juggling the responsibilities of fatherhood.  The movie also starred Dianne Wiest as Helen Buckman, Mary Steenburgen as Karen Buckman, Rick Moranis as Nathan Huffner, Keanu Reeves as Tod Higgins, and Martha Plimpton as Julie Buckman.  The movie was a success with critics as well as at the box office, doing well enough to warrant a short lived TV series in 1990.

In this film, Gil Buckman (Martin) has trouble juggling his career and family life.  His kids all have issues, and when he finds out his wife (Steenburgen) is pregnant with their fourth child, he does not know how he will survive.  In the mean time, Gil's extended family has their own issues of insecurity, divorce, neurotic children, and money problems.  In the end, everybody appears to be on the right path.

In the end Gil realizes he is not the parental failure he saw himself as.  The movie ends with the entire family at the hospital for the birth of Gil's child, and everyone appears to be on the straight and narrow.