Dad’s War With Grandpa

According to an article on Forbes.com, the Hollywood family comedy The War With Grandpa—adapted from the 1980s children’s book by my father, Robert Kimmel Smith, and starring Robert De Niro—earned just over a million bucks box office on its first day of release, October 9, making it the number-one movie in the Coming-Apart-at-the-Seams States of America. (Or is that the Getting-Ready-to-Begin-Repairs States?)

Even if it turns out to be only for this one day, it seems like a vindication. Dad, are you hearing me?

I enjoyed this interview with the film’s director, Tim Hill, in which he shows his appreciation for the craft and subtlety in my father’s storytelling. Hill, like my dad, wanted to make sure he didn’t “hit people over the head” with the story’s message about conflict and the impulse to make war. Here’s how Bob put that idea: “Usually my story line conveys a moral without my having to make it concrete. Concrete is too heavy for good writing, anyway, and usually messes up the page.”