News for today's 2018

The Family: Dysfunction reigns

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b><i>The Family</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thefamily/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">View trailer</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><b> </b><br /><b>Three stars. Rating: R, for violence, considerable profanity and brief drug use</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>By <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/12885694730612878577" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">Derrick Bang</a></b></span></b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>            <br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Comedy is hard. Dark comedy is much harder.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15vuc5pohZizfzTLLL2z7YC4B59eKuaEzOcIKnsZe9o4eYcKhSiez4FTJ92F_rSCXkMWVwcpCdQELtXVardJdF0P5Mo-F-XSggrxYUOk3S2Ffeac_F858h2OJ-KAehwt1b5ER1EhfWU4/s1600/The+Family+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15vuc5pohZizfzTLLL2z7YC4B59eKuaEzOcIKnsZe9o4eYcKhSiez4FTJ92F_rSCXkMWVwcpCdQELtXVardJdF0P5Mo-F-XSggrxYUOk3S2Ffeac_F858h2OJ-KAehwt1b5ER1EhfWU4/s400/The+Family+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Giovanni (Robert De Niro) and Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer, back to ccamera) naturally wish<br />to know how their children fared, during their first day at a new French school. Warren<br />(John D'Leo) and Belle (Dianna Agron) downplay their activities, unwilling to admit that<br />their larcenous instincts — a family quality — will allow them to <i>own</i> the school by the<br />end of the week.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In theory, this film is the droll saga of a Mafia family trying to maintain the low profile demanded of the Witness Protection Program, while too easily sliding into former bad (i.e. violent) habits, much to the ongoing consternation of their FBI handler. That’s a premise with considerable comedic potential, particularly when the handler is played by Tommy Lee Jones at his morose, long-suffering best.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And things would have been fine, had our protagonists confined their lethal behavior to the various goombahs trying to find and whack them, and if said goombahs had limited <i>their</i> nasty tendencies toward each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But far too many innocent bystanders get killed along the way, sometimes quite unpleasantly. It’s rather hard to chuckle when another inquisitive neighbor gets shot between the eyes. That simply isn’t funny, and it, ah, kills the mood. Repeatedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The trouble is, veteran French action director Luc Besson doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie to make this time; his script — co-written with Michael Caleo, from Tonino Benacquista’s comedic novel <i>Malavita</i> — keeps sliding back and forth between the grim “straight” drama of <i>La Femme Nikita</i> or <i>The Professional</i>, and the far lighter, satiric tone of <i>The Fifth Element</i>. These styles are mutually incompatible, and the result is rather a mess.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Caleo, I note, co-wrote one episode of TV’s <i>The Sopranos</i> with that show’s creator, David Chase. That may have been the serio-comic mood Besson hoped to achieve, since Chase masterfully blended sarcastic humor with heinous violence in his groundbreaking show. And, at times, Besson and Caleo almost get there ... but then they spoil it with another dollop of brutal behavior.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) and his family have spent years on the run, at various locations in the States and now France, due to the persistence of mob bosses infuriated by his having ratted them out. Giovanni’s wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), has grown accustomed to packing and unpacking; teenagers Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D’Leo) have resigned themselves to the constant uprooting faced by military kids.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, newly ensconced in a sleepy French village in the Normandy countryside, saddled with the fresh identity of “Fred Blake,” Giovanni attempts, once again, to blend. On impulse, he greets neighbors by claiming to be a writer of history; trouble is, the locals know far more about his fabricated topic — the D-Day invasion — than he does.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FBI handler Robert Stansfield (Jones) isn’t amused; that’s precisely the sort of sloppy thinking that could get “Fred” exposed as ... well, as somebody other than who he claims to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maggie attempts to maneuver through a nearby market with her limited French, earning nothing but snooty contempt from a shopkeeper who sneers at her desire for peanut butter, and then disses all “arrogant Americans” to the general agreement of a few locals. With a grim smile that Pfeiffer delivers with elegant grace, Maggie arranges for a small propane canister to come into contact with lighter fluid and a match, and casually exits the establishment before its contents erupt through the plate glass windows.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, <i>that’s</i> funny, particularly since Besson clearly plays on the long-established American belief that the French are arrogant snots. No flying limbs, just mangled groceries. We can imagine the store’s inhabitants somehow escaped with minor injury.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Elsewhere, Belle and Warren warily navigate their first day at this new school with the precision of a veteran “dirty tricks” squad. Initially feigning innocence (Belle) and vulnerability (Warren) in order to suss out the various social cliques and pecking orders, within days they’re clandestinely calling the shots.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, too, is wonderfully amusing, particularly when Belle unexpectedly goes postal on a gaggle of hormonally charged boys who imagined she would be easy pickings. Warren, as well, methodically demonstrates “fixer” skills that evoke pleasant memories of master larcenists in caper thrillers such as <i>Ocean’s Eleven</i>. D’Leo evokes the sort of clinical maturity that we’d expect from a kid forced to grow up quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Giovanni — ah, no, <i>Fred</i> — finds his limited (<i>very</i> limited) patience tried by a local plumber who arrives late and then cheerfully tries to take advantage of the situation, assuming that <i>all</i>Americans are loaded with money and therefore ripe for the plucking.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds perfect, right? And it would be, except that, back in the States, a mob assassin (Jon Freda, appropriately scary as Rocco) is following leads and murdering likely families — husband, wife, teenage son and daughter — in the hope they <i>might</i> be the Manzoni clan. Identification is checked by sending severed fingers to the local Mafia don, who has lost none of his juice, despite being in a federal prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching Rocco murder children — more than once — rather destroys the attempt at light-heartedness, even if the executions are fairly bloodless and (mostly) take place off-camera. It soon becomes clear that, with the possible exception of our main characters, <i>nobody</i> else is likely to survive the carnage that we can predict will consume the third act.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rest assured — this being a Luc Besson movie — a bazooka will be involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The jarring tonal shift notwithstanding, Besson and Caleo also squander some of their script’s can’t-miss plot elements. The dynamic between De Niro and Jones is rich with potential, the wheedling, easily irritated Giovanni constantly getting under Stansfield’s last nerve. But despite his co-star billing, Jones isn’t in much of this film; it looks as though he spent perhaps two days on the set, and did a few quick scenes before beetling back to some other project.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heck, the family dog gets more screen time than Jones. Great part for a canine, I might add.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Giovanni’s decision to write his memoirs — on a lovingly preserved manual typewriter — is another plot element that doesn’t really accomplish anything, except perhaps to fill time as De Niro carefully places paper in roller and attacks the keyboard with two-fingered precision. Granted, Giovanni needs <i>something</i>with which to fill his time, and the possibility of dire revelations eventually sparks a droll exchange with Stansfield ... but the whole writing thing just sorta drifts off.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few sidebar developments are handled more successfully. Maggie has developed a fondness for the two FBI “babysitters” — Caputo (Domenick Lombardozzi) and Di Cicco (Jimmy Palumbo) — who’ve apparently followed the family from one location to the next. Their delight over Maggie’s authentic Italian cooking becomes a droll running gag.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Agron, well recognized as Quinn Fabray on television’s <i>Glee</i>, is allowed the greatest character range; aside from her amusing skills as a schoolyard enforcer, Belle also succumbs to every girl’s fantasy when living in France: to fall in love. Her target: a hunky substitute math teacher. Agron navigates her character’s two extremes with panache; it’s fun to watch Belle be swoony one moment, and then, in the next, beat on a loutish boy with a tennis racket.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She also shares a touching moment with De Niro, when Giovanni laments the mess that he has made of his life, and the hardship his family has endured as a result; Belle, firmly devoted to her father, insists that he is, nonetheless, the best dad in the world. Given the circumstances, that’s a tricky sentiment to sell, but Agron nails it.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pfeiffer is equally memorable, her Maggie spitting fire with every spoken word ... or, alternatively, taking solace in a doobie while wondering, with the stricken concern of an exhausted mother tiger, just what is to become of them. Unlike many of the other actors in this uneasy farce, Pfeiffer knows <i>precisely</i>how to play each scene, having navigated similar waters for director Jonathan Demme back in 1988, with <i>Married to the Mob</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">De Niro, happily, does <i>not</i> overact, as he has done too frequently in recent years. He treats this role fairly seriously, which adds comic weight to the moments when poor Giovanni loses his temper yet again.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The film certainly looks good; production designer Hugues Tissandier makes the most of the sleepy village setting, and the gated little chalet in which our family has been sheltered. Thierry Arbogast’s cinematography is similarly warm and inviting. Besson and editor Julien Rey orchestrate these events fairly calmly, eschewing rat-a-tat pacing in favor of longer, slower scenes that reflect the drowsy countryside setting, while also allowing the cast some richer character moments. (That said, this film feels a bit <i>too</i> slow, at 110 minutes.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Evgueni and Sacha Galperine deliver a robust score that lends comic punch to the story’s lighter moments.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite its many enjoyable elements, though, <i>The Family</i> can’t shake the mean-spirited interludes that completely overwhelm it. Even the climax leaves us with a bitter taste, likely not the mood Besson intended us to have, upon departing the theater.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too bad, because this could — should — have been much better.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>

The Family (2013) • View trailer Three stars. Rating: R, for violence, considerable profanity and brief drug use By Derrick Bang ...

The Family: Dysfunction reigns

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