Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D'Leo
The Family tells the story of a mobster and his family relocated to Normandy, France as members of the FBI Witness Relocation Program. The mobster, Giovanni Monzone (DeNiro), turned state's evidence against a Brooklyn mob boss and is now hiding out with his family as Fred Blake in the small French town where they stand out like a sore thumb. Those expecting a light, funny comedy like My Blue Heaven (1990), which covered similar ground, are in for a rude awakening. The Family is a bloody film that's packaged as a comedy, but plods along like it has lead weights strapped to its ankles.
Why do the Monzones stand out like a sore thumb? Not only are they the only Americans residing there, but they have a habit of solving their issues by beating people up or blowing things up, much to the chagrin of their FBI agent handler Stansfield (Jones), who spends the whole movie looking chagrined. The fact that the Monzones/Blakes don't speak French isn't a concern, since all of the locals helpfully speak English. Not once do they encounter someone who doesn't understand a word they say, which could've resulted into something with comic possibilities. Would it surprise anyone that a rude French character criticizes American culture?
The Monzones manage to briefly avoid detection by the mobsters searching for them. They apparently used to live in the Riviera and the hitmen can't find them since they moved. Their location is discovered in the most absurd way I've seen in many a moon. I won't reveal it for the sake of avoiding revealing spoilers, but it's one of those plot developments that happen only in movies. The Monzone children go to school, where the daughter Belle (Agron) falls in love with a college-bound teaching assistant and son Warren (D'Leo) causes trouble at school by becoming a school crime boss. Mother Maggie (Pfeiffer) spends her days seeing what few sights are in Normandy and attending church, but also sets fire to the local grocery store when she overhears nasty remarks about her by the store owner.
There are numerous instances in which the Monzones tackle rude behavior and disrespect by whacking people upside the head with tennis rackets, fists, blowing up something, or in the case of a scheming plumber who won't fix the brown water coming out of the faucet, breaking nearly every bone in his body with a baseball bat. How is this funny? It would be a lot more interesting to see the Monzones handle rudeness with no-nonsense Brooklyn street smarts instead of resorting to beatings, but this film doesn't seem to know how to do that.
Giovanni spends his day typing his memoirs on a manual typewriter, which explains some of the back story involved. He writes as more of a therapeutic tool for himself, but this is frowned upon by Stansfield, who doesn't like how he is depicted by Giovanni. Tommy Lee Jones is among the most intelligent and interesting actors working, but he spends all of The Family with the same forlorn expression. He doesn't seem to want to be there and puts as little energy as possible into his performance. DeNiro and Pfeiffer do their best, but are at the service of a one-note, one-joke movie. DeNiro has played so many mobsters in his career that it has been said young mobsters learn how to act by watching his movies. They should avoid watching this one. The movie does perk up when Agron is on screen. She is a natural beauty and the camera loves her. She also may be the only character without a dour look on her face.
Things conclude with a loud, violent shootout in the same vein as Luc Besson's own The Professional (1994). The hitmen arrive in Normandy armed for what looks like another D-Day invasion. They kill everyone in police headquarters, but aren't there cops walking the beat or driving in patrol cars that notice houses blowing up or hear gunfire? The teens get in on the action too and are able to shoot the baddies with pinpoint accuracy. My assumption is that these kids probably never held a gun before, but they shoot better than the professionals.
When I'm watching a bad film, I tend to think of better ones that may have covered the same ground. My Blue Heaven, with Steve Martin as a mobster relocated to a small suburban town, worked as a breezy comedy with plenty of laughs. I also thought of Sidney Lumet's Running On Empty (1988), in which a family is on the run from the feds. It took the time to consider that life on the run is hell on all of the family members, especially the oldest son who wants a life of his own.
The Family wants to be funny and violent at the same time. It achieves half of its goal, but not necessarily the more entertaining half.
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