Interpersonal Film- Meet the Fockers

I chose Meet the Fockers for my paper dealing with Interpersonal Communication. Each character in this movie has their own distinct style of communication which ranges from complete openness to as secretive as you can get and even nonverbal that lead a great two hours of communication disaster but is still very relatable to. Although I chose a comedy I felt that this was a great story and displayed everything we have been studying. This film displays many different styles of communication between the characters and how they choose to interact with each other ultimately impacts their relationships. The story is second in the comedic series of Greg Focker and his soon to be wife Pam Byrnes. Greg is from a Jewish family where his father had chosen to give up a successful law career to be a stay at home dad, and his mother is a sex therapist for the elderly who is very open and comfortable with discussing the topic of sex with everyone. Pam comes from a Catholic and much more tradition family with a stay at home mother and a father who has recently retired from the CIA, but with a cover story of being a florist. Jack Byrnes is the perfect example of an uptight, hard to impress, “my way or the highway” upper middle-class man. Pam’s father Jack has already run Greg through the ringer trying to impress him and now it’s time for the family’s to meet before the wedding. Greg want his parents Roz and Bernie to basically tone down their eccentric ways to satisfy Jack’s very uptight standards which they go along with for a while but eventually find much too difficult and just don’t understand the point of having to do so. The story becomes more complicated when Jack’s secretive CIA ways of non-communication and cover-ups are added in because he believes Greg has a 15 year old son with the family maid that he is trying to hide. Also Pam has told Greg she is pregnant and doesn’t want her father to find out about. The story has a variety of interpersonal relationships between