Back around 2001, Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in a film about hillbilly family angst that was promptly shelved until Miramax finally released it on DVD just last month. Although the cast list includes Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Kelly Preston, Brenda Blethyn, and Andy Griffith there was obviously something about the film that made the studio honchos uncomfortable. That something is that Daddy & Them is a painfully bad film.

       Billed as a comedy, Daddy & Them is a black comedy at best and woefully unfunny for most of its 90-plus minute running time. If you find the sort of folks who regularly pop up on Jerry Springer hilarious then you'll probably find this film to be a laugh riot as this dysfunctional redneck family of alcoholics trade insults back and forth and generally do everything in their power to make one another miserable. It's a migraine film of epic proportions, especially with Dern's character who spends much of the film screaming at the top of her lungs about imagined infidelities. Thornton's script does incorporate a bit of heartfelt emotion and his attempts to sugar-coat things a bit turns thick as molasses near the end with an ending that is too pat.

       However, the film isn't all bad. The acting is actually pretty stellar. Thornton does fine work as Claude, the patient working-stiff who is a bit too obsessed with his body image. Thornton possesses an on-screen magnetism that draws your attention no matter the role and he is utterly believable here. Dern is ok with what she has to work with but is, unfortunately, saddled with the least likeable character in the film. Ruby is shrill, insecure, and quick to read an accusation into nearly everything Claude says. Preston is appropriately trashy as Ruby's sister, Rose, who also happens to be Claude's ex-lover and never misses an opportunity to remind Ruby of that fact. Lane has a few funny moments as Jewel, mother to Ruby and Rose, and a woman who is constantly comparing Claude to all of Ruby's old boyfriends. Griffith's role is a real departure as the family patriarch whose disturbing nightmares often include a corn-holing. Singer John Prine is surprisingly good as Claude's brother, Alvin, easily the most likeable character and the family's only voice of reason. Quietly observant of all that happens around him, Alvin is ultimately the glue that holds the family together. Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck show up in hilarious cameos as married lawyers who spend as much time fighting with one another as they do defending their client in court.

       The DVD extras include a 4 minute behind the scenes featurette that is nothing more than a cast love fest in which they express how wonderful it was to work with one another, a handful of deleted scenes, with or without commentary by Thornton, which are mostly just extended versions of scenes that appeared in the film (the exception is an impressive moment of acting by Jim Varney which ended up on the cutting room floor), feature commentary from Thornton, and a feature titled 'The Return of Carl' which has Thornton reprising his Sling Blade character in a scene with John Prine, Jeff Bailey, and Walt Goggins.

With Thornton at the helm and an all-star cast to back him up, Daddy & Them should be a much better film. But, a weak script and too many unlikable characters left this reviewer feeling like this feuding family of poor white trash should have been left at the curb.