The Substance of Fire

A touching film about family, faith and the will to survive, The Substance of Fire is the moving story of three grown children who try to come to grips with their stubborn, mentally ill father who insists on destroying the family business by refusing to sacrifice the quality of the books he publishes in order to produce more salable works of literature. Ron Rifkin is engaging as an obstinate, emotionally unavailable father who is obsessed with the Holocaust. Timothy Hutton is brilliant as the quiet younger son dying of cancer. Sarah Jessica Parker plays the part of the feisty, hot-tempered sister and Tony Goldwyn plays the eldest son and heir to the family business, whose homosexuality blurs his family vision. The Substance of Fire is a quality bittersweet drama about a severely dysfunctional Jewish family. Recommended. (A. Glover)