Good news! I found our old family portrait in the attic,
talk about perfect timing!
Now, about the film, after-all this is why were are here. I recently saw The Family, the first film I've seen since Jobs, hence my silence over that time period. This film stars Robert DeNiro (known for everything), Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman via Batman Returns), Dianna Agron (Glee), John D'Leo and the always great Tommy Lee Jones (the actor of many films, not the drummer of Motley Crue). This film follows the above mentioned names, minus TLJ, as the "Blake" family. The "Blake's" keep relocating because they are in the witness protection program; in his past life, DeNiro was a notorious Mafia member turned snitch, finding his way out of the country via TLJ's character, an FBI agent. One of the things making this film unique, is that we witness every member of the "Blake" family individually acting upon Mafia urges and anger: fighting, stealing, exploding businesses, etc. In fact, the best part of this film was the final showdown between the "Blake's" and the Mafia hit squad sent to kill them. This sequence was nothing like typical finales. Usually these types of situations garner the most lavish and drawn-out timing, resulting in the most ridiculous unbelievable fight sequences/explosions/death defying whatever in the film's entirety. In The Family, this encounter lasted all of 9ish minutes without any "dumb-luck" or super human happenings. About the only thing The Family's ending had in common with the "typical" Hollywood ending, was that the family all survived, however, in The Family, they did it in the most rookie of fashions. It's evident in the body language that the children and mother were/are not comfortable with the idea necessarily, but rather fought and won out of necessity; fight or flight. This coupled with the quick to-the-point pace made for an excellent ending to a film otherwise....ehh.
Have you ever walked into something expecting one thing, then being delivered another? Well this was my experience with the whole of the film. For starters, I saw maybe one trailer for The Family and had read little to nothing about it prior to setting foot inside the theater. When I sat down, I fully expected to be laughing non-stop from the awkward family dynamic and the family "mobbing" together. Instead, what I witnessed was more of a dark/inward type comedy. The kind where the funny things revolve around DeNiro's decent into senility. Now don't get me wrong, there were a hand full of other LOL moments, like when the daughter beat up a bunch of fellow students with a badminton racket.
Was it good for you?
In fact, probably one of the funniest moments utilized one of the many films in which Robert DeNiro starred and was then asked to comment on Gangsters in America: Goodfellas; of course he was not a member of that film within this film. All-in-all though, the films pace was a little slow, and left me waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Now, let's break this thing down here and get a little technical, shall we? For starters, this film was written and directed by Luc Besson. Don't feel bad if this name doesn't jump out at you upon first glance, it didn't to me. So I did a little investigating and found something to my supreme liking; Luc Besson wrote and directed another film, one which I have loved forever and ever: The Fifth Element!!! BOOYAH!
You don't know Luc?!!!
Now don't get concerned here people, Besson has more than a couple titles under his belt, in fact, he has written and/or directed numerous films. Are we good Bruce?
Yeah, we're good.
Some such titles include: The Transporter 1-3, Taken 1 & 2, Colombiana and many many more. One thing is for sure reader, Luc Besson knows how to write and direct suspenseful/action films, he has a resume a mile long to prove it. Let's bring this back to The Family, after all I'm writing about it, not Luc Besson.
One of my favorite aspects of this film was how the camera moved and played with the scenes. There were multiple scenes in which the camera moved freely and continuously, without a break or pause. Very difficult moves made to look fluid and seamless, almost as though it wasn't happening at all. In fact, I'm sure that to the untrained eye, the camera was stationary. When camera work is so natural feeling, it's easy and very common to forget that it too has an important role to play. With sloppy camera work, we the viewer are left feeling worked and drained, almost as though we just went 7 rounds in a prize fight; case in point, The Borne Supremacy. When the camera is fluid and natural, we the viewer see what? We see nothing, that's the point. The scene appears bigger and we get a greater sense of what's what within the film world, all without knowing that the camera has moved at all usually. Next time you watch a film, something you've seen numerous times, the kind you can recite all of the lines, pay close attention to what the camera is doing. Odds are there is something going on without your knowing it, and it will blow your mind when you realize this, and notice it in everything.
Which brings me to my next point....
This film is one of those which is truly hard to judge. It was good in many ways: story and camera, while being simultaneously slow and so-so. The Family is one of those which I say go and see, whether in theaters, RedBox or whatever. Just remember to go into it without expectation and most likely you'll survive with the drive to speak highly of it.
Until next time, happy viewing!
Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large;
films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz
