Synopsis: Greg is preparing to propose to his girlfriend Pam. But first, he needs her father’s approval. The problem is, getting on his good side isn’t so easy.
Who is Jack Byrnes?
Jack is a former CIA agent who worked for 34 years as a “psychological profiler,” weeding out double agents within the agency. Pam goes so far as to call him a “human lie detector.”
In retirement, Jack dedicates himself to his family. He also has a side business developing high tech hidden surveillance cameras you can implant in everyday objects to monitor people in your own home.
That’s because Jack doesn’t trust anyone. He especially doesn’t trust anyone dating his firstborn daughter. As such, he’s predisposed to immediately and thoroughly hate Greg before even meeting him.
Who’s in the Circle of Trust?
Despite his belief that you can’t really trust anyone, Jack places his faith in a select group. This includes his immediate family (Debbie, his youngest daughter; Pam, his eldest; Denny, his son; and Dina, his wife), as well as some extended family, which includes Bob M.D., who’s Debbie’s fiancé, and Larry Banks, who’s Bob’s father1.
It also includes Pam’s ex-boyfriend Kevin, whom Dina hints only became part of Jack’s inner circle after he and Pam broke up.
Last but not least, Jack trusts his Himalayan cat, Jinxy, whom he may love more than anyone else on the planet. He loves Jinxy so much, he was prepared to put Debbie and Bob’s wedding on hold when she went missing.
Evidently, Jinxy cat is the only living thing Jack has had to woo. He implies as much in his discussion with Greg about cats being the superior species to dogs, because you have to work for their affection.
Like most cat owners, Jack either turns a blind eye to his cat’s naughtier behaviors or refuses to believe she’s capable of anything bad. In no world could Jinxy have used the den toilet, because she knows better. In no world - even if Jinxy had used the den toilet - could she have flushed it, causing the septic tank to overflow, because she doesn’t have thumbs.
After Jack, Jinxy might be the most powerful living thing in the Byrnes household - potentially in Robert De Niro’s entire filmography. Because of this unique position, Jinxy is situated right over Jack’s shoulder, as his sort of, right-hand cat.
Who’s out of the Circle of Trust?
Greg Focker, for the simple reason that he’s dating his firstborn daughter. That said, Greg doesn’t do himself any favors by constantly lying to Jack and goofing up so hard that he nearly burns Jack’s house to the ground.
Does anyone move in or out of the Circle of Trust?
Despite all of Greg’s catastrophic oopsies, which include destroying Kevin’s hand-carved altar, bringing a feral Jinxy lookalike into the house, mangling Debbie’s face in a pool volleyball game and a bunch of other stuff that effectively ruined Debbie and Bob’s wedding, he still manages to win Jack over by proving his love for Pam.
Now, the above represents a simplified version of Greg’s path into the Circle of Trust. If we take what Jack says about Greg at face value, he actually flits in and out over the course of the movie, gaining, losing, gaining, losing and finally gaining back Jack’s trust.
That path looks more like this:
Poor Greg. What an emotional rollercoaster.
Is his trust ever misguided?
Of course. Jack for some reason reserves infinite trust for his son Denny, who has a welcome mat that says “Go Away” in front his bedroom door. Based on the scene where he catches Denny holding a weed pipe, Jack will believe anything that punk says.
Additionally, as someone who has a cat and witnessed the destruction they can cause, I think Jack trusts Jinxy too much. She pees on grandma’s ashes, but doesn’t she know better since she only pees in the toilet? It doesn’t matter, because Jack still trusts her unconditionally, even though she did arguably worse damage to the ashes than Greg, who just accidentally knocked the urn over.
Also, she did use the den toilet!
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There’s also Larry’s wife Linda, who appears in a bunch of scenes but contributes nothing to the movie other than another disapproving face to direct at Greg.