The Family

The Family (2013)

 Life is hard within the Witness Protection Program. Life is pretty soft, too, particularly if you are the Manzoni family in Luc Besson's "The Family": you get to measure in a very quaint house in a very little village in Normandie, you eat well, you've got FBI guys stationed across the road 24/7, and you've got a private handler World Health Organization makes certain that you simply and your admired ones area unit safe. the purpose of being in Normandie for the Manzonis is to somehow "pass" as regular Americans on vacation or sabbatical, and also the Manzonis fail to manage this from the beginning, in the main as a result of they're all raging maniacs. 

"The Family" could be a pretty uneven film, weaving from comedy to violence to sentiment, however it is best once it sticks within the realm of flat-out farce. The pleasure comes in observation the actors (Michelle Pfeiffer, in particular) submitting wholeheartedly to ridiculous things. The film includes a mixture of influences and genres, obviously, and Besson plays with these and references them brazenly, however the ludicrous parts rest anxiously beside the violence, going away the unmistakeable feeling that this is often a movie slightly at war with itself. 

When addressing the family's adjustment (or lack thereof) to small-town French life, it's on certain (and usually hilarious) footing. Giovanni Manzoni (Robert Diamond State Niro) snitched on his Mafia friends back within the States, and since of that there's currently a $20 million worth on his head. In exchange for his testimony, he and his family (wife and 2 adolescent youngsters, young lady and Warren) area unit placed within the Witness Protection Program, beneath the management of FBI agent parliamentarian Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones). Maggie Manzoni (Pfeiffer) is already tired of the life doggo, and includes a little habit of processing stuff up once she gets upset. in fact inserting a well known Mob boss into a small village in France does not appear to be the simplest strategy for the FBI, as a result of the witness can stick out even additional there, however you actually cannot raise those queries once you watch "The Family." The answers won't waiting beneath interrogation.

The film opens with the family (Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianna Agron, and John D’Leo) driving through the French countryside to yet another hideout since their cover was blown in the Riviera. The two kids loll bored in the back seat, Giovanni tries to tell everyone the new place will be fine, everything will be okay, the dog gets blamed for the bad smell in the car (when actually it is the stink of a dead corpse in the trunk, hidden there by Giovanni on his way out of Nice). This opening scene contains everything that is good and pleasurable about the film: watching Pfeiffer and De Niro act with one another, the weird juxtaposition of violence and everyday family matters, the family's anxiety at being in France when they'd rather be in Brooklyn. You are lulled into a false sense that you understand what is going on here—that the father, Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) is the "wise guy," and his family is just along for the ride. But the next couple of scenes explode that sense of safety (literally) as you realize that all of them, all four of them, are out of their minds.

Belle and Warren size up their new small-town school and promptly begin to wreak havoc among their peer group. In a matter of days, Warren has taken over 50% of the blackmarket cigarette business, as well as the prescription pill business, and when he is told by a teacher that his conduct has been poor, he says he wants a lawyer. On her first day, Belle accepts a ride home with four French guys who tell her they want to "practice their English," and when she realizes that maybe they want more from her, she beats one of the guys to a pulp with a tennis racket. Played by "Glee"'s Dianna Argon, Belle is a creepy character, gorgeous and innocent, but when she falls in love with her math tutor, you can't get the image of her smashing the tennis racket into another human being's face out of your mind. Meanwhile, Warren and Belle's parents are oblivious to what's happening in their children's lives. Giovanni thinks he might try his hand at a memoir, not a smart move for someone who is supposed to be in hiding. Maggie visits a local church, trying to re-connect to her faith.  Tommy Lee Jones shows up now and then to say it's hard to protect them if they insist on breaking the plumber's legs because he can't fix the pipes.

De Niro could play this role in his sleep, but he's fun to watch, especially in the scenes with Pfeiffer, and when his power is demeaned by his family's shenanigans. In one awesome sequence, the curator of a local film group calls up Giovanni and asks if he wouldn't come to their next meeting to have a nice debate on a great American film, Vincente Minnelli's "Some Came Running" (starring Frank Sinatra as an aspiring writer with a tormented past). Against the advice of Stansfield, Giovanni accepts. The head of the film society tells him they were sent "Goodfellas" by mistake, so maybe the visiting American would have something to say about that? Boy, does he ever. It's a giant wink to the audience, an inside joke, as we are treated to the bizarre vision of Robert De Niro as Giovanni Manzoni watching Robert De Niro as Jimmy in "Goodfellas."

Pfeiffer's performance is the reason to see the film, though. Calling back her show-stopping turn in "Married to the Mob," her Maggie is both supportive and bored out of her mind, yearning towards her old Catholic faith but unrepentant about blowing stuff up. She cooks at the stove, her hair in gigantic curlers. She kneels in church, praying to Jesus with earnest eyes. Pfeiffer has been very good in dramatic material, but she might be a comedienne at heart. There's one scene near the end of "The Family" where events are coming to a boil, buildings are exploding, and she crawls across the floor as quickly as she can clutching a gigantic kitchen knife. Her eyes are manic, wild, and yet also focused, like an assassin's. 

Luc Besson has built a career on stylish and thrilling action films, and "The Family" is a mess compared to such earlier efforts as "Le Femme Nikita" and "Léon: The Professional." But for what it is, it works, while reminding us and again to not take it too seriously.