Review of Family Viewing (1987) by Hindénbörg E — 01 Apr 2010

A bewildering mess of a movie that looks at a twisted family dynamic that is more about power than nurture. The film spent all of its time moving the narrative, such as it was, forward, and left the viewer trying to piece together the few small clues to the back story of these characters and how they wound up in these various configurations.

The synopsis does a better job of helping one to understand the basic framework than the film itself does. In order to understand why these characters behave as they do, one is forced to invent motivations that are not evident.

At times, and this might be due to the film's vintage, the sets and the stance of the characters, even the camera angles, reminded this viewer of soap opera television. A lot of the scenes were of video footage, or of the characters watching video footage.

The acting was lackluster, the script rather stilted and the story hard to make sense of. Yet through it all, one begins to pull for the young man in his quest to personally care for his grandmother, against the wishes and the machinations of his father.

Although the title indicates otherwise, this is not one for family viewing. Not a lot of skin, but some disturbing images and adult themes run throughout.