Ben is a successful professional, happily married to Rachel (Elizabeth Perkins). There has been talk of moving out of New York and buying a place in the country, and Ben takes Sam along to inspect a property. "This house was built by my grandfather after the Civil War," the owner tells them. Sam is unmoved and wants to know details about the septic tank drainage.
They have car trouble, and when they appeal to a mechanic they find on his lot a beautifully-restored 1940 Ford Deluxe coupe convertible. It reminds Sam of the first cars of his young manhood. They buy it right there on the spot, thereby following two rules of the Little Movie Glossary, one providing that characters drive classic cars whenever possible, because modern cars are boring and all look alike, the other calling for ragtops because it makes it easier to see and light the characters. They begin an odyssey through the beautiful scenery and foliage of upstate New York.
The movie is sort of a sideways version of "Sideways," even down to a scene where the two men join two women for dinner. The difference is, in "Sideways" the guys desperately want to impress the women, and in "The Thing About My Folks," they want to impress each other. The women excuse themselves to go to the powder room, and somehow we know they won't be coming back. Sam and Ben are so deep in conversation, it's a while before they realize they've been dumped.
What do they talk about? The early days of Sam's marriage. The meaning of life. Why they never talked about important things. How Sam's job kept him away a lot of the time. All the usual stuff. They also do the usual things. They go on a fishing trip, although they are not fishermen, and play pool, and Sam turns out to know his way around the table.
What will be the result of this trip? Falk has a wonderful speech: "You'll be here when your old man finds himself. While we're at it, we can find you, too. We can find the whole god-damned family. We got a car."
Then a dramatic document emerges: A letter written by Muriel to Sam, two weeks before Ben was born, which has waited in its envelope ever since. What the letter says I will leave for you to discover, but it places the entire marriage in a different light, and leads to some closing scenes in which Dukakis has little to do, but does it wonderfully; I was reminded a little of her exasperated marriage in "Moonstruck." Her great discovery about life ("things change, and you make adjustments") is not earth-shaking, although it has the advantage of being true.
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