Main Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Natasha Lyonne, Gregory Smith, Carl Michael Lindner
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 94 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Todd Holland directed this Charlie Peters adaptation of Frank Parkin's novel. Respected anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Williams), bring their three children along during their failed search in New Guinea for a lost tribe. After Jennifer's death, James reaches a zero point back in the U.S., having spent all his foundation grant money raising the kids as a single parent. Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful he could be charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, and fakes a 16 mm "documentary" film, casting his children as tribe members and editing in footage of a legit New Guinea tribe. Anthropologist Veronica Micelli (Jenna Elfman) contacts cable-TV producer Henry Spivey (David Ogden Stiers), forcing James to continue creating fraudulent footage as the rival Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) gets suspicious. It seems a shame this racially insensitive film was made, while the once-announced plans to film anthropologist Kenneth Good's nonfiction Into the Heart (Simon & Schuster, 1991) never led to a production. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Kind of a Wag the Dog for the anthropology set, Krippendorf's Tribe has some sharp moments, as one might expect from a movie in which Richard Dreyfuss and Lily Tomlin go head to head. But what keeps it from being successful is its erratic tone and its compliment of unsympathetic characters. (The fact that it treats the scientific community like gullible bimbos also gives pause.) Director Todd Holland and screenwriter Charlie Peters seem to want a farce/black comedy, but having three cute children in primary roles forces them into the unwitting realm of family movie. More problematic is that the family's mother has just died, yet the movie doesn't give them a chance to mourn her, making her death more like a whimsical plot detail than a key propulsive element or opportunity for genuine sentiment. This also has the effect of downplaying Krippendorf's depressed mental state as a factor in the morally bankrupt decisions he makes. But most sympathy-challenged is Jenna Elfman's junior anthropologist, Veronica Micelli. In her first prominent film role, Elfman effectively transplants her pixie cuteness from TV's Dharma & Greg, but there's something coldly opportunistic about her character that never gets resolved. She doesn't need a good heart in a black comedy, but as a surrogate mother to the Krippendorf kids, in a movie inevitably seen by an audience that same age, she has to provide more. The one actor who does get the tone right is the ever-reliable Natasha Lyonne, in one of her earliest efforts, serving as her father's sarcastic moral compass -- and perhaps the only character who understands the right thing to do. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Bill Rea - Art Director, Jackie Burch - Casting, Isis Mussenden - Costume Designer, Ellen H. Schwartz - First Assistant Director, Todd Holland - Director, Jon Poll - Editor, Whitney Green - Executive Producer, Ross Canter - Executive Producer, Bruce Broughton - Composer (Music Score), Scott A. Chambliss - Production Designer, Dean Cundey - Cinematographer, Larry Brezner - Producer, Karen Manthey - Set Designer, James E. Webb - Sound/Sound Designer, Charlie Peters - Screenwriter, Frank Parkin - Book Author
Krippendorf's Tribe is a 1998film adaptation of Frank Parkin's novel directed by Todd Holland.
Plot summary
Respected anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Williams), bring their three children along during their much-enjoyed search in New Guinea for a lost tribe. The search fails, despite the family's best efforts. After Jennifer's death, James reaches an academic stagnation back in the U.S., having spent all his foundation grant money raising the children as a single parent. Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful of being charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, using the names of his children as a basis. He later fakes a 16 mm "documentary" film, casting his children as tribe members and superimposing footage of a legitimate New Guinean tribe so as to enhance the illusion. Anthropologist Veronica Micelli (Jenna Elfman) contacts cable-TV producer Henry Spivey (David Ogden Stiers), forcing James to continue creating fraudulent footage as James' rival Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) becomes suspicious.
Because James has described to the scientific community a culture unlike any other, the fraud becomes increasingly famous. James himself masquerades as a tribal elder, while his two sons enact increasingly imaginative and startling rituals dreamed up by themselves. Only the eldest child, James' daughter Shelly, refuses to participate due to her disgust at the dishonesty perpetrated by her father.
Taking advantage of her curiosity, James tricks Veronica into participating in his false documentary. When she discovers the truth, she is initially angry, but later helps James continue his fraud, which they intend to bring to a conclusion.
Meanwhile, Ruth Allen travels to New Guinea, discovering there the absence of any tribe in the location specified by James. She transmits the news via telephone to a colleague of hers, who exposes James at a gala. James' imaginative son Mickey, urged by his sister, improvises a lie to this effect; that the Shelmikedmu had deliberately hidden themselves by means of a magical ritual known to them. Unknown to the majority of the characters, Shelly has contacted the New Guineans befriended by her family during the futile search for the lost tribe, urging them to masquerade as the Shelmikedmu in order to disappoint Ruth Allen. The ruse succeeds, and the accusation of fraud is abandoned.
James, relieved of his worries, ends his fraud. Because Veronica has become sexually involved with him during her participation in his deceit, she assumes the role of a mother toward the children, though she is not explicitly said to marry James.
