The Family (2013)
Produced by: Martin Scorsese
Hubby and I watched this a few
days with high hopes. We were fairly disappointed.
***** Spoilers*****
The Family is a
comedy/drama about the head of a Brooklyn, NY based Italian-American mob family
who snitches on his mob family and business to the feds. Gio (Robert DeNiro),
his wife and two kids have spent the past six years in Witness Protection but
they just can’t stay out of trouble.
Every few months or so they have to pack up and move with new names and
their federal handler, Stanfield (Tommy Lee Jones), is running out of ideas and
places to hide the troublesome family.
This time they’re in a quaint
little village in Normandy, France where they’re having trouble blending in
with the locals. From the wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), blowing up a
grocery store, the teenage kids beating up their classmates and starting up a
racket in the school, and Gio giving the plumber twelve hairline fractures and
blowing up a chemical plant, they stay busy and their antics are both hilarious
and shocking. Then the hit men show up and well, it’s a blast.
While I liked movie and the
premise sounds awesome, I wasn’t much blown away by it. There were slow moments and
I liked all the family members, despite their violent tendencies, but I kinda
wanted Gio (not the others) to meet a grisly fate. Gio was the epitome of
hardass mobster with a comical side. The film ranks in at a little under two hours since it’s comedy-driven
with dark, dramatic overtures, not all shoot ‘em up drama, but I can’t help
wonder if it would’ve been better if it lacked comedy and took on more of a Goodfellas type feel (that incredible
movie is briefly showcased in a great scene).
Anyway, this movie is right up
your alley if you’d rather see the lighter side of mob-life but still have
people die.
I liked the movie but I
probably wouldn’t watch it again. At least not within the next few years.
3 Stars.
Your thoughts??
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