ABOUT MY FATHER
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
The film starts with Sebastian Maniscalco (playing himself) talking about his family’s history. His ancestors came from Sicily, and despite the hardships they faced, they got each other through all the troubles as a family. Since he was a boy, Sebastian always looked up to his father Salvo (Robert DeNiro), a hair stylist, though he acknowledges that his father has a different way of thinking than he does.
Sebastian is dating an artist named Ellie Collins (Leslie Bibb), who comes from a wealthy and prestigious family. Her father William XII (David Rasche) owns a chain of hotels, and Sebastian works for their rivals. Ellie’s mother Tigger (Kim Cattrall) is a no-nonsense senator. Ellie also has two brothers, William XIII/”Lucky” (Anders Holm), whom Sebastian considers to be a smug jerk, as well as the youngest, Doug (Brett Dier), a hippie. Ellie informs Sebastian that they have both been invited to their family’s summer home for the Fourth of July weekend, which is a big deal because it means Sebastian is starting to be seen as part of the family.
Sebastian brings up the trip to Salvo, who attempts to guilt trip him into not going because this is the first holiday they would spend together without Sebastian’s mother. Ellie suggests to Sebastian that he bring Salvo along for the trip, which Sebastian doesn’t want to do because he’s worried Salvo will embarrass him. However, since Sebastian wants to use the trip as an opportunity to propose to Ellie, he relents and invites Salvo.
Salvo joins Sebastian and Ellie as they fly out to the summer house. They are picked up by Lucky in a chopper, but Sebastian gets anxious and almost throws up, forcing them to turn around and drive the rest of the way. They arrive at the house and meet Bill and Tigger before being shown to their rooms. Salvo finds the place to be too fancy. When the Collins invite them out for dinner at a country club, Salvo makes a scene by refusing to let Bill and Tigger pay for their meal.
Bill shows Sebastian his office, as well as a catalogue of his biggest hotel. Sebastian notices Ellie’s artwork is in almost every picture, as it turns out that her parents have been secretly buying her art and making her believe that she is succeeding on her own.
Sebastian later joins Tigger to compete against Ellie and Lucky in tennis, which Tigger is extremely competitive at. Sebastian plays poorly at first due to his embarrassment at Salvo watching him, but once he gets riled up by Lucky, he plays as well as Ellie had told her mother, allowing them to win, and Sebastian also ends up nailing Lucky in the groin with the tennis ball.
The family then gathers on Bill’s boat where he announces to Sebastian that he is offering him a chance to work for their biggest hotel, a job that Lucky was hoping to get. While Sebastian says he will think about it, Lucky brings him out onto the water to use a Flyboard. Sebastian shows off by diving, only for his shorts to fall down and accidentally expose himself to everyone.
Tigger is set to do a live news conference and asks Salvo to style her hair for her, which he gets excited for because he has been wanting to work on her hair all weekend. Although they bond at first, Tigger is horrified when Salvo cuts off a lot of her hair, leaving her with a short hairdo. She goes on TV venting to her interviewer, but her public reception goes up in response to the haircut.
Salvo later offers to cook dinner for the family. He feeds them a pasta dish with what they believe is chicken. Sebastian and Ellie start to hook up outside when Sebastian sees peacock feathers in the garbage, meaning Salvo killed and cooked one of the family’s prized pet peacocks. Sebastian and Salvo bury the feathers in the woods, but Sebastian goes off on Salvo about how he never wanted to bring him along for the trip, which hurts Salvo’s feelings.
In the morning, Sebastian finds a note from Salvo announcing that he is going back home. Later, the family gets ready for a Christmas card photoshoot, but Ellie comes in after finding the hotel catalogue and finding her artwork in the pictures, cluing her in on her parent’s secret. She gets even more mad when Bill lets it slip that Sebastian knew about it. With everything appearing to go wrong, Sebastian has a heart-to-heart with Doug and resolves to fix things.
Lucky and Doug help Sebastian fly in the chopper so that they can get Salvo back. Sebastian apologizes to his father, and they return to the party where Sebastian proposes to Ellie during a live show. She accepts, and everyone cheers.
Salvo later joins the family for the Christmas card shoot. Sebastian declines Bill’s job offer so that he and Ellie can stay in Chicago, allowing Lucky to have it. The family’s dog Duke then comes in with peacock feathers in his mouth, which lets the family think he killed the bird and gets Sebastian and Salvo off the hook.
Sebastian Maniscalco (playing a version of himself) reluctantly invites his father Salvo to join him as he travels with his girlfriend Ellie to meet her family at their summer home for the Fourth of July weekend. Salvo embarrasses Sebastian on a number of occasions but still manages to endear himself to Ellie's parents.
After Salvo kills and cooks the family's pet peacock (which only Sebastian knows about), Sebastian snaps at his father, causing him to go home. He realizes he was wrong and gets Ellie's brothers to help get him back, and he joins his son as Sebastian proposes to Ellie, which she accepts.