★★★
And you thought your family was crazy. Just wait till you
see the family from “The Family”, the latest film from director Luc Besson.
The Manzoni clan is under witness protection from a New York
City crime family. Giovanni (Robert De Niro) is a former mobster turned FBI
informant. Since then, the mob has been after him for ratting out his own
family. Now he’s on the run with his real family under the assumed name of Fred
Blake. They’ve been bouncing around parts of rural France trying to hide out
from would be assassins. Their new home is in Normandy.
His family is made up of his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer)
and his high school aged kids, Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D’Leo).
Since Gio/Fred is an aggressive ex-mobster, the rest of his family doesn’t fall
too far from his tree. They’re all just as crazy as he is. One of the first
things Maggie does in this new town is to detonate a homemade bomb inside a
grocery store after the owner makes a joke about her being American.
As for the kids, Warren is calculating. He’s attempting to
set up his own mafia style racket within the halls of the school. Belle has a
very short fuse, much like her father. She’s not oblivious to the fact that
she’s an attractive young lady who catches the eyes of many boys, but she will
not let anyone come near her. Otherwise, she’s liable to beat them down to a
bloody pulp.
Keeping the family hidden is FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee
Jones). He’s very tired of the family not being able to keep a low profile,
especially Gio/Fred who can’t seem to blend in anywhere, causing Stansfield to
move him every few months. Stansfield is especially perturbed with the discovery
that Gio/Fred is writing his memoirs.
“The Family” exists solely for the purposes of
entertainment. It does not expand your outlook on life or force you to do any
deep soul searching. And that is perfectly okay. This film is full of so much
humor and entertaining moments that really move the plot along. And of course,
De Niro’s one word catch phrase that you might find yourself repeating after
the film is done.
De Niro doing comedy never gets old. His comedic timing is
that of a seasoned comedy veteran. But he’s not really trying anything new
here. He almost reminds me of his character from “Analyze This”. Tommy Lee
Jones is another who seems to act like himself, but you wouldn’t want him doing
anything different here, especially the way this role is seemingly tailor made
for him. And then there’s Michelle Pfeiffer, who steals the scene right out
from under her Oscar winning co-stars. These three roles aren’t much of a
stretch for them to pull off, but they do it with amazing ease, which really
makes the film more than worthwhile.
Director Luc Besson isn’t really known (at least in my book)
for being a very notable story-driven filmmaker; he’s more of a visual guy
(“The Fifth Element”). But he seems to have stepped out of his usual comfort
zone here, and it works great. He keeps the pace of the film moving quickly and
allows his actors the freedom to play these roles the way the chose. The
screenplay, co-written by both Besson and Michael Caleo (who worked on HBO’s
“The Sopranos”) seems to have been written with these three main actors in
mind. It works perfectly to their strengths.
While “The Family” will probably be quickly forgotten, it's
worth checking out. It's enormously entertaining and fans of De Niro, Pfeiffer
and Jones will be extremely satisfied with seeing them all together in the same
movie. It's enjoyable and very funny at times. That’s a lot more than many other
typical September releases can offer.
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