AllMovie

Director Duane B. Clark's debut feature, Shaking the Tree, is an overly earnest and derivative low-budget film. The film borrows so heavily from Barry Levinson's Diner, in fact, that it almost seems like an updated remake. There's the nervous schlemiel (Daniel Stern in Diner, the underappreciated Arye Gross in this film), who calls off his wedding in a fit of panic. There's a womanizing alcoholic with a gambling problem and an uncaring wealthy family who drives like a maniac (Gale Hansen sort of playing a combination of the Mickey Rourke and Kevin Bacon characters in Diner). The film is about a bunch of lost manchild characters who can't come to terms with women or adult responsibility. It even ends with a bittersweet freeze-frame of the friends considering their unpreparedness for the future, just like Diner did. Unfortunately, the film doesn't have the sharp dialogue, wry humor, and likeable characters that Diner had. There's not enough comedy in the story, and the scene where the gang plays a wacky slapstick baseball game in Comiskey Park with silent movie-style music blaring on the soundtrack doesn't count. The actors try, but these characters come off as whiny and self-pitying. Each has at least one big dramatic scene that's so overwrought that it's likely no actor could pull it off. Shaking the Tree displays a few flashes of talent from Gross and Hansen, and little else of interest.