Review of The Family (2013) by Python2000 — 03 Jan 2014

Yet another black comedy from Luc Besson. But in contrast to some of his earlier movies, this is actually good. Not overwhelmingly good, but definitely entertaining.

Robert De Niro returns to the crime genre in style alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in two brilliant performances, however their two children give the best performances in the whole movie. Regrettably I don't know either of the actors names off the top of my head because both of them are reasonably unknown, but they both deserve to be in more stuff (especially John D'Leo as the boy). Every now and again Tommy Lee Jones pops up too. The plot makes sense and holds up, even in the overblown final act. And the action, again even if the overblown final act, is exciting and will keep viewers only watching for explosions entertained.

Much like most of the other comedies I have watched in my entire life, the main problem is that I didn't laugh much. It's either that this is an unsuccessful black comedy or that I'm an unhappy pedantic who rarely ever smiles, but I did laugh a below average amount of times. Sure I was almost in hysterics at the very clever joke about De Niro being able to express any emotion just by saying and the two agents who are constantly listening in to the families every word have some hilarious conversations. But most of the other jokes only got a smirk or a weak smile out of me.

However, that does not stop The Family from being a hugely enjoyable black comedy, which delivers excitement and thrills (but fails to satisfy the audience by way of jokes) without forgetting emotion and story arcs. To my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed The Family, and strongly recommend it.