MOVIE REVIEW 'Around the Bend' winds up in some very familiar places

Michael Caine and Christopher Walken star in the film.
By PHILIP WUNTCH
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"Around the Bend" takes you nowhere you haven't already been.
It's a tale of "Secondhand Lions" reaching "Terms of Endearment" while nestling "On Golden Pond." It also offers a tour of Kentucky Fried Chicken emporiums.
This determinedly eccentric comedy-drama focuses on four generations of males living briefly under the same roof. The family patriarch and KFC enthusiast is former archaeologist Henry (Michael Caine), who hasn't long to live. His respectable, conservative grandson Jason (Josh Lucas) tends to his care. Jason and his wife have separated, and their 6-year-old son, Zach (played by 7-year-old Jonah Bobo), currently lives with his dad and great-grandfather.
Turner (Christopher Walken), Henry's prodigal son and Jason's runaway father, returns to the household. Henry is delighted; Jason is cautious. Zach, who had been told Turner was dead, is inquisitive. They manage an awkward, tentative truce until eccentric Henry kicks the bucket (not the Colonel Sanders kind) early in the movie.
He leaves bizarre instructions for disposing of his remains. They necessitate visiting a variety of KFC outlets between Los Angeles and Albuquerque, N.M., and by the time the ritual is completed, everyone is at peace with everyone else. Jason has come to accept Turner as another human being and not just a vagabond father.
Solid, not inspired
The performances are solid rather than inspired. Any moviegoer knows that Walken and Caine make colorful eccentrics. Caine, who played a similar role in 2001's "Last Orders," is wistful, cantankerous and, oh yes, eccentric at appropriate moments, but Walken's low-keyed weirdness needs a few more bolts of electricity. Lucas gets to play sensitive without seeming forced about it, and Bobo manages to be brassy but not bratty.
Glenne Headly has long been one of the movies' most underused actresses, and "Around the Bend" will do little to rectify that matter. She gave strong comic performances in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "Dick Tracy," but here she's completely out of sync as Henry's Danish caregiver, who loves horror movies and slaughters the English language. It's a badly written character that seems lifted from some best-forgotten '50s flick.
Jordan Roberts wrote and directed "Around the Bend." His direction is smooth and respectful, but the screenplay shows signs of being a personal catharsis. Sadly, this predictable film will not mean as much to audiences as it obviously does to its creator.