Douglas clan stars in 'Family.'

In a family affair, all of the Douglas' come out for "It Runs in the Family" to give performances that feel real in their own right, even though they develop slowly in the movie.\n"Family" is the story of a grandfather (Kirk Douglas) whose wife dies (Diana Douglas). Meanwhile, his son (Michael Douglas) is not only coping with his mothers death and his overbearing father, but also his career, his wife (Bernadette Peters) thinking that he has cheated and dealing with his own two sons (Cameron Douglas and Rory Culkin). \nThis is a hard movie to judge for a couple of reasons. First, the actors are excellent at portraying the anger and awkwardness of father and son relations. But this might not be as much acting as it is natural chemistry since three of the actors actually are father and son. Surprisingly enough, the best performance comes from Culkin, who comes from a Hollywood family himself. \nKirk Douglas tackles a difficult performance. If anyone witnessed the Oscars they would see that Douglas, just suffering from a stroke, speaks very slowly and mumbled. He plays a character who has also suffered from a stroke, though the story line really doesn't revolve around his disability as much as the fact he is aging. Cameron Douglas gives a good performance as the stoner son, which shows he has potential to carry on Douglas' name.\nThe biggest problem with "It Runs in the Famliy" is it moves at an incredibly slow pace, and that no change is evident in the characters from the beginning to the end. The women characters are often telling their men that their fathers actually do love them even if they don't show it. At best, "Family" is a movie for fathers and sons that a mother/wife would pick out. "Family" can be heart-warming and interesting when the characters are joking about parenting or love, but even with such a high class cast the overall seriousness is demeaned by resorting to the lame, occasional fart joke. The humor doesn't always succeed.