Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sam and Kate’ on Hulu, a Gentle Dramedy About Parents and Their Adult Children Starring Dustin Hoffman and Sissy Spacek

Novelty, thy name is Sam and Kate (now on Hulu): This medium-heavyweight drama stars real-life father-son duo Dustin Hoffman and Jake Hoffman as a fictional father-son duo, and real-life mother-daughter duo Sissy Spacek and Schuyler Fisk as a fictional mother-daughter duo, each working through age-appropriate romances with the other. Neat! And tidy! But credit writer/director Darren Le Gallo for giving them plenty of well-considered material that downplays the casting gimmickry in lieu of genial, realistic drama that plays to the actors’ strengths. 

SAM AND KATE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Bill (Dustin Hoffman) tools around a discount store on a scooter, annoying the employees as his son Sam (Jake Hoffman) lounges on some marked-down patio furniture, looking not patient, but not impatient either. Sam’s used to his father’s incorrigible personality, identifiable for its stubbornness, defiance and irascible charm. He also always seems at least a little bit drunk, but it’s hard to tell for sure one way or the other. They live together for reasons that aren’t made plain, but they seem to need each other. Sam looks to be pushing 40 but works a dead-end job at a chocolate factory, smoking weed on his breaks and sketching in his notebook with enough skill that, if he pushed himself, might get him somewhere, at least in the creative-fulfillment department; all this is movie shorthand for “unfulfilled potential.” Bill, meanwhile, probably needs someone there most of the time; he has heart problems, but refuses to follow his doctor by eating clean and avoiding the beer and cigars. Notably, Sam always refers to his father as “Bill,” because Bill doesn’t believe his adult son should call him “Dad.”

It’s Christmastime. Sam stops at the local independent bookstore – they apparently live in a small town with a cute main street lined with coffee shops and the like – to get his pops a tome on gardening, and kinda clicks with the owner. That would be Kate (Fisk), who shows a big smile but sad eyes and very gently pushes back on his mildly awkward advances: “I’m not dating right now.” She seems to say that reluctantly, mind you, because there’s a spark between them that she’d rather not acknowledge, and that’s movie shorthand for “she’s probably depressed about something.” Kate doesn’t live with her mother, Tina (Spacek), possibly because there’s not much room in Tina’s house, which is piled with all the telltale signs of a hoarder. But they’re tight, and they clearly need each other for reasons that’ll slowly be revealed over the course of the movie.

Sam and Bill attend the Christmas church service, where they first interact with Kate and Tina. A few chance encounters later – like I said, small town – the guys are helping the ladies fix Kate’s car in exchange for a dinner invite. Bill and Tina dance in the living room while Sam and Kate lean in for a kiss in the kitchen until they’re interrupted by Bill’s drunken stumbling. The next day, Sam puts the cards on the table for his old man to see: “You need to get laid,” Sam says. Bill huffs. But he asks Tina to dinner for New Year’s Eve, while Sam convinces Kate that they should go – and here I pause to let you come up with a Very Cute Outing for this couple. Got one? Let’s see if it’s right: Sam convinces Kate that they should go roller skating. One date goes very well, and the other does not. Such is life, right? And life will keep playing out for the next hour or so here. 

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Middle-of-the-road character-driven adult dramas are like wheat pennies – you just don’t see ’em like you used to. I’ll randomly remember a couple off the top of my head: Feast of Love pops in there for some reason (it was kind of ludicrous), and Everybody’s Fine, a family drama starring Robert De Niro. I’m just grateful that Spacek isn’t finding herself in pandering junk like 80 for Brady or Book Club.

Performance Worth Watching: Spacek and the elder Hoffman do what they do, and what we know they can do. They’re typically good – deep in character, sometimes playing a bit big, sometimes pulling back. It’s a fine balance. But Fisk stands out as the cast member who holds back enough to give her character an air of mystery, and her part of the story a little more dramatic heft.

Memorable Dialogue: “You don’t like me, but I like you.” – Bill has himself pretty accurately pegged when he says this half-jokingly to an annoyed store clerk

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Sam and Kate is enjoyable and involving in the moment, but a day later? Well, some of it sticks, although nobody will confuse it for Oscar bait. It’s an above-average character study in which elder folk struggle mightily to change who they are and what they do, while their children exist in a kind of meandering state of ill-defined personal identity. Bill and Tina’s problems are plain as day, and they resist addressing them. Sam and Kate’s problems are tougher to define: He needs to work on himself, but taking care of his handful of a father seems to be eating up a lot of his time. She carries pain around with her like luggage through the airport of life; it weighs her down and saps joy and prompts her to say no to a sweet, well-meaning guy when she probably should say yes. Everyone here is relatable. Change is hard; resisting it seems natural, and embracing it seems painful. So, as the wise man once said, it goes.

And that mediumweight sentiment is what keeps the film afloat. It doesn’t lean too heavily into comedy or drama, with a few predictable story beats that meet but don’t exceed expectations. Most laughs stem from Dustin Hoffman’s amusing eccentric-old-man shtick, which doesn’t challenge him as an actor, but at least keeps us entertained, and has a layer or two of complex emotional fodder (grief, self-loathing) because Hoffman doesn’t do simple. Le Gallo seems fully aware that his screenplay is nothing special, but his cast is very much so, and that they’re very much capable of elevating this type of mean-average, bittersweet melodrama to something that prompts our emotional investment. Take the scene in which a couple embraces on a park bench beneath a sky full of exploding fireworks – it’s a cliche, but beautiful nevertheless, and comforting. This is a warm, tender story about four people who we learn to appreciate for their assets and their faults. It’s a slice of life that isn’t quite real life, but is just real enough to make us give a damn.

Our Call: Sam and Kate is a deeply unassuming dramedy that offers no great revelations about the human condition, but doesn’t intend to. It’s lightly poignant fodder made for adult viewers weary of spectacle, so if that’s you, STREAM IT and appreciate the strong performances and gentle escapism it offers.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.