So, just how much can go wrong when Greg (Ben Stiller), a good natured, but shy and insecure nurse, tries to win the approval of his girlfriend’s old fashioned, strict, and overly protective Daddy (De Niro)? Let’s just say that what starts as an ill timed anti-feline remark and minor discomfort over lost luggage gradually escalates into sheer chaos with Daddy heading the family inquisition down the straight line of doom for the hopeless suitor.

Anyone who’s ever had to face the parents of a beloved is all too familiar with the overwhelming craving for instant approval and a concomitant tendency to fudge, over-exaggerate, and dissemble. Of course, being thrown in the mix of familial relations with people weird enough to turn their cat into a near circus performers is probably not an average person’s idea of developing friendships. Thus, with the inner validation seeking mechanism smoking into overdrive, the idea of being oneself quickly dissolves into an item on a list of unattainable virtues.

Pairing Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro, whose polarity clashes cause sparks on the screen, is yet another Hollywood miracle discovery that will likely keep Meet the Parents in our memories as the funniest movie of the year. If two men could turn the father/son-in-law conflict into a hilarious ceremonial mating dance, we can’t imagine anyone doing it better than Stiller and De Niro. Once these two gain their momentum, the challenge is on us to catch our breaths amidst the constant laughs.