The Counselor: Guilty as charged

<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 Counselor</i> </b></span></span></span></span></span></span><b>(2013) • <a href="http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/thecounselor/" 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>No stars (turkey). Rating: R, for graphic violence, grisly images, profanity and strong sexual content</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #5e5e5e; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><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>Originally published in <i><a href="http://www.davisenterprise.com/" style="color: #27a9c5; text-decoration: none;">The Davis Enterprise</a></i>, 10.25.13</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cormac McCarthy apparently felt that 2009’s big-screen adaptation of his novel <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2010/11/road-futile-journey.html">The Road</a></i> wasn’t sufficiently bleak, violent or morally depraved, so he upped his game with the original screenplay for this glossy bit of rubbish.<o:p></o:p></span></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/AVvXsEjdO7MLg_yVs9vnrd-NB4ZtYMb0jzjx5n-Ulfpyj9VwMPAf1OzSmjEpVybEeMGqV_TyhSmNZXLTwnbhlLJiMt6Rq3BJdo-M-KjRHgqF_AASJLyhXKGvvXonf3CIHHkbrh72mRnlDcOthtA/s1600/The+Counselor+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdO7MLg_yVs9vnrd-NB4ZtYMb0jzjx5n-Ulfpyj9VwMPAf1OzSmjEpVybEeMGqV_TyhSmNZXLTwnbhlLJiMt6Rq3BJdo-M-KjRHgqF_AASJLyhXKGvvXonf3CIHHkbrh72mRnlDcOthtA/s400/The+Counselor+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;">Despite repeated, protracted and viciously descriptive warnings from Westray (Brad Pitt,<br />left), our imbecilic title character (Michael Fassbender) stubbornly insists on getting<br />involved with a massive shipment of illegal drugs. After all, what could go wrong?</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rarely have so many A-list stars been involved in such a lamentable waste of time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Counselor</i> isn’t merely set in a world of abominable behavior; McCarthy’s characters are cheerfully pragmatic about it. No act too vile to contemplate? They don’t merely contemplate; they discuss barbarism with the thoughtful ease of two fellows comparing cigar brands in a gentlemen’s club. Then, having laboriously exhausted the subject, director Ridley Scott ensures that we’ll eventually get to <i>watch</i>each degenerate act.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">McCarthy has a Pulitzer Prize to his credit, for the aforementioned <i>The Road</i>, and rumor suggests that he’s under consideration for a Nobel Prize for literature. The characters in his novels often struggle with moral ambiguity in an increasingly cynical world, although we’re generally able to sympathize with a well-meaning protagonist, whether John Grady Cole in <i>All the Pretty Horses</i>, or Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in the grimmer <i>No Country for Old Men</i> (adapted into a sensational 2007 film by Joel and Ethan Coen).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But there’s nobody to like in <i>The Counselor</i>; indeed, it’s difficult to even understand most of the characters who populate this deadly dull study of ill-advised acts and their horrible consequences. Everybody is morally compromised at best, or sociopathic, or indifferently brutal. Everybody except the token innocent, that is, who may as well be wearing a sign that reads “Sacrificial Lamb.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mind you, a roster of degenerates isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself; Quentin Tarantino has a way of extracting wonderfully dark entertainment from the vicious swine who inhabit, say, Pulp Fiction or <i><a href="http://derrickbang.blogspot.com/2009/09/inglourious-basterds-paths-of-gloury.html">Inglourious Basterds</a></i>. But that’s precisely the point: Tarantino characters are engaging for the way they revel in their bad behavior, whereas the increasingly tiresome players in this drama give new meaning to the word “boring.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And <i>goodness</i>, how they talk. Talk, talk, talk ... most of them trying to impress our title character — his given name never revealed — with their deeply philosophical, even poetic views on the nature and consequences of vice. They all sound like frustrated university English professors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Needless to say, real people — particularly dangerous criminals — don’t talk this way, but this twisted story isn’t deep enough to qualify as some sort of parable. It’s simply dull, and you’ll quickly tire of actors who declaim with the faux intensity of bad Shakespearean performers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our “hero” invariably stands, blank-faced, during all these exchanges, asking moronic questions that encourage the continuance of each tedious conversation. He demonstrates the intelligence and perceptive savvy of a 5-year-old child, which makes one wonder how he has been able to curry favor, at least initially, with so many upper-echelon bad guys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew we were in trouble, early on, when The Counselor — as everybody calls him — endures a lengthy discussion on the nature and imperfections of diamonds: a didactic sermon that quickly devolves into the dullest lecture imaginable. It goes on <i>forever</i>. Does it have anything to do with what follows? Is this diamond merchant a key character, and will we see him again? Is the diamond itself, which The Counselor eventually purchases, somehow significant? Nope, nope and nope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Granted, this microscopically flawed gem foreshadows an ongoing theme of flawed behavior, and particularly the rather sexist notion, offered (at tedious length) by Reiner (Javier Bardem), that all women prefer imperfect men. But that point is obvious long before this interminable scene concludes ... and it’s merely the first of numerous interminable scenes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scott opens his film with The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) in bed with his lover, Laura (Penélope Cruz): also an oddly protracted sequence intended to convey playful intimacy, which somehow misses that mark and slides toward vulgarity. Maybe it’s the smug look on Fassbender’s face, which clashes with Cruz’s gently affectionate smile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is an early indication of the degree to which Fassbender, generally a much better actor, swans through much of this film with expressions and body language that seem a little bit off, if not downright wrong. He simply doesn’t work as a character.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, for reasons we never learn, The Counselor has gotten himself into deep financial doo-doo. He therefore embarks on two foolhardy plans: to open a nightclub in partnership with Reiner, a decadent entrepreneur with connections to The Wrong Sort of People. Worse yet, this scheme will be financed — and The Counselor’s money problems “solved” — by his involvement with a massive drug shipment from Mexico to the States.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everybody warns The Counselor not to do this, not to take this step, because Actions Have Consequences. Reiner warns him. At length. Westray (Brad Pitt), the middleman in this proposed arrangement, also warns him. At greater length. The Counselor smiles blandly, asking stupid questions and making brainless observations, then does it anyway.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can’t help wondering <i>how</i> our protagonist is allowed to participate in this $20 million drug deal. What’s his buy-in? Why is he taken at face value by off-camera drug barons who obviously would be suspicious of such a dumb neophyte?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Actually, that’s the major problem with this screenplay. We know <i>nothing</i> about our title character. Is he an essentially good man making one ghastly mistake, or a longtime sleaze who deserves what comes next? How has he gotten to know these people? Why does he seem to represent only shady individuals, such as Ruth, the tough felon played with almost comical prison ’tude by Rosie Perez?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s like this guy parachutes into this storyline, no identity or background given, and then does stuff simply because The Script Says So.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rubbish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scott is equally clumsy with respect to logging key events. There’s no sense of time in this mess. Do days pass? Weeks? When, precisely, does The Counselor spring Ruth’s adult son from jail, thus allowing this kid to meet his destiny and set up the catastrophe that ruins everything?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much is made, as well, of the drug shipment cleverly concealed within a truck of liquid waste: a truck that gets hijacked not just once, but twice, ultimately winding up under the control of ... who? Do we care?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not in the least.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We do know that the initial double-cross is orchestrated by Reiner’s girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), a brilliant sociopath who delights in destroying people: an act that she regards as an erotic high. She identifies with Reiner’s two pet leopards, and the athletic grace with which they chase down prey; she even has leopard-style spots tattooed on her back. It’s an intriguing role for Diaz, but — again — Malkina remains a cipher, despite one fleeting remark regarding her childhood.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Malkina certainly is the most interesting character in this morass, but that’s damning with <i>very</i> faint praise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pitt, alternatively, is the most interesting actor: the only one who puts just the right spin on his performance. He looks and behaves like the cautious, slightly mocking type who’d be found in such circumstances, who knows that the odds are certain to catch up with him, but — like an addicted gambler — can’t walk away from the table.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The production values are as dull as McCarthy’s script. Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography is washed out and lifeless, and he doesn’t do anything interesting with interiors that range from seamy to opulent. Daniel Pemberton’s tuneless score is actually irritating ... but not nearly as irritating as Scott’s reliance on tight close-ups, as these people chatter on, and on, and on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I cannot imagine what anybody saw in this script, even given the obvious allure of working with McCarthy. And I definitely can’t imagine why the execs at 20th Century Fox believed they had something worth releasing. This rancid flick should have been staked like a vampire, its head lopped off — as happens more than once, during this saga — and buried in a separate grave.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bad movies come in many flavors, but nothing is worse than being boring. <i>Perpetually</i> boring. Grindingly, offensively, sadistic-for-the-hell-of-it boring.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br /></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve been warned.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>

2013 Brad Pitt Cameron Diaz crime drama Goran Visnjic Javier Bardem Michael Fassbender Natalie Dormer Penelope Cruz Ridley Scott Rosie Perez Turkey The Counselor: Guilty as charged

The Counselor   (2013) •  View trailer   No stars (turkey). Rating: R, for graphic violence, grisly images, profanity and strong sexual cont...

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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> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument></xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276"> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <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><!--EndFragment-->

2013 crime drama Dark Comedy Dianna Agron Domenick Lombardozzi Jimmy Palumbo John D'Leo Jon Freda Luc Besson Michelle Pfeiffer Robert De Niro Tommy Lee Jones The Family: Dysfunction reigns

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

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