In US indie movie ‘The Discoverers’, Griffin Dunne stars as a professor trying to reconnect with his father and children after his mother’s death.
It is Justin Schwarz’s debut feature film as a writer and director, and has screened at dozens of film festivals around the world.
Dunne shot it shortly after his own father passed away and said the experience was poignant: “My dad had died sort of recently to the time I was shooting. So he was on my mind throughout that. And I think with the character I played – he has a complicated relationship with his own father – and I think there’s something about being a middle-aged guy, with your father still alive, that makes you look at where you are in your life,” said the actor.
The film takes a lighthearted look at a dysfunctional family brought together as they follow in the footsteps of the first Americans to cross the American northwest, Lewis and Clark and their famous discovery trek. In the process, the family discover themselves and each other.
The movie has received mostly sympathetic reviews from critics, who have praised Dunne for his performance.
‘The Discoverers’ is on limited release now.
