Father Figures(2017)

Plot Summary

• Fraternal twin brothers, Kyle (Owen Wilson) (A laid-back model who made millions by selling his image to a BBQ sauce company) and Peter Reynolds (Ed Helms), have learned that their biological father did not die when they were young, as they had previously believed, and that their eccentric mother, Helen Baxter (Glenn Close), had been sexually promiscuous in the 1970s and that she is not sure who their father is. Peter is a Proctologist. He is divorced (ex-wife Katherine (Mary Grill)) and facing a mid-life crisis because his teenage son, Ethan (Zachary Haven), hates him. Having never known his own father, Peter is unsure of how to deal with his son, inspiring Peter to attempt to find & meet his biological father.This is an odd time for everyone, Helen just got married to Gene (Harry Shearer) and Kyle's partner Kalyani (Jessica Gomes) just announced her pregnancy. Peter recognizes an actor on Law and Order: SVU from photos of his supposed father and confronts Helen. Helen explains that she had been promiscuous at the time of their conception and did not want their father involved. When they keep pressing, Helen reveals that their father is Terry Bradshaw. Peter is excited as he loves Terry.The brothers fly to Miami to meet Bradshaw who they encounter at a signing event. Terry takes an instant liking to Peter & is excited to have sons in his life. But then Terry meets his friend Rod Hamilton (Ving Rhames), who reminds Terry that they were in Australia at the time Peter & Kyle were conceived. Helen didn't come as she didn't have a passport. Then Terry remembers that Helen dated Roland Hunt (J. K. Simmons) (a former financial investor, reclusive criminal) around that time. As they travel north after contacting Helen about him, Kyle finds that his BBQ sauce royalties deal is ending.Kyle and Peter travel to NYC and meet up with Roland. He invites them inside but expresses his dissatisfaction at having children in front of his mother. As the brothers prepare to depart, they offer to help their father with his repossession service. Kyle and Peter later learn that Roland is a car hijacker, when he takes them with him on a "job" and then abandons them when the owners show up unexpectedly. The brothers steal the Ferrari and hit Hunt who was returning to them and have to take him to the hospital. Once there they find that their blood groups don't match and hence, he can't be their father. Hunt realizes that he was in prison at the time of their conception. Roland tells them that he was busted by some narcotics officer Sparkly P (Jack McGee) who started dating Helen the moment he was behind bars. That guy might be their father.When they go on a road trip to find out who their father is, they discover more family secrets and more about their mother than they probably ever wanted to know. They also encounter a mysterious African American hitchhiker (Katt Williams) who offers them advise. After accidentally parking on railroad tracks, Peter and the hitchhiker narrowly escape getting hit by a train, while Kyle is stuck in the car and presumably killed. Initially devastated, Peter is surprised to see Kyle walk away from the car, only to be punched by Kyle for abandoning him. As they are being treated, police officers recognize the name Sparkly P as a sting alias of Patrick O'Callaghan, a retired police officer in Worcester, Massachusetts. After dropping off the hitchhiker with his family in the same location, the brothers stop at a hotel where Peter falls for a girl named Sarah.Kyle and Peter reach Patrick's house only to find that he is dead, and that Peter had sex with his daughter Sarah O'Callaghan (Katie Aselton) just the night before. Peter may have had sex with his own half-sister. Disgusted, Peter runs out of the wake. Then the dead guy's twin brother Kevin shows up and clears the mess. He tells Kyle and Peter that the narcotics officer and Helen never had sex (as Patrick didn't believe in premarital sex) and there was a vet Dr. Walter Tinkler (Christopher Walken) who had an on again off again relationship with Helen since high school. The sucker punch is the Dr Tinkler stays just 3-4 houses down the street from where they stay today.They go back home and confront Dr Tinkler. Tinkler calls Helen in panic. Helen arrives and reveals that she is not their biological mother. She then proceeds to tell Peter and Kyle that in Dec 1975, Helen worked at a charity helping teenage pregnancies. One girl went into premature labor, gave birth to twins and died. Helen was dating Tinkler at the time. Helen wanted to adopt the boys and Tinkler didn't want to sacrifice his career, so they broke up. Helen also reveals she never knew their father at all. The brothers are happy to have learned their history.One year down the line, Kyle has been fired from his modeling job. The brothers have gone into business together and created an app that provides positive advice from the universe spoken by the hitchhiker. The "universe" app sends people positive messages. It's been downloaded a million times at $4 a pop. Peter and Sarah are together and happy. Kyle and Kaylani have twin daughters.

Storyline

• Kyle and Peter Reynolds are fraternal twins who were raised by their mother, Helen, as their father died before they were born. Kyle has a pregnant girlfriend, Kaylani, and is wealthy from royalties for his image on BBQ sauce labels. Peter is divorced with a teenage son who resents him. Shortly after Helen's wedding, Peter recognizes an actor on "Law and Order: SVU" from photos of his supposed father, and confronts Helen. Helen explains that she had been promiscuous at the time of their conception and did not want their father involved. When they keep pressing, Helen reveals that their father is Terry Bradshaw. The brothers fly to Florida to meet Bradshaw at a signing event. Bradshaw is excited to have them as sons. As Bradshaw recounts stories with former teammate Rod Hamilton, the brothers realize that Bradshaw had been in Australia at the time of their conception, and thus isn't their father.. In middle age, fraternal twin brothers Peter and Kyle Reynolds could not be more different. Divorced Peter is uptight by nature. He realizes that he is unhappy with his life: he hasn't been with anyone since his divorce three years ago--from his college sweetheart and the only woman he had even been with, Katherine; he and his teenage son Ethan have never gotten along; he doesn't really like being a proctologist and had only become one to honor the supposed father who had died of colon cancer before he and Kyle were born. Ex-surfer Kyle is a free spirit living in Hawai'i, off the lucrative royalties from his image being used for a commercial Hawaiian barbecue sauce in the latest item in what seems to be his charmed life. He has never been married and is currently in a serious relationship with equally free spirit Kaylani. At the wedding of their mother Helen--her first since their father's passing, Peter and Kyle discover by chance that the stories Helen had told them about their father for all these years were all lies: she doesn't actually know who their father is. Peter is arguably more devastated by this news as it was on what he based his life. With what little Helen tells them, Peter and Kyle go on a quest to find their father: a journey of discovery about the list of "candidates", but also about their mother, their twin relationship, and themselves. — Huggo