Like the former mafia clan that is its narrative focus, The Family is charming, clever, vicious when it has to be, and fun throughout. Fans of The Sopranos and DeNiro’s other gangster-related work will love it, but it’s certainly entertaining for anyone who enjoys a good dark comedy.
When audiences first meet the Manzoni family — Giovanni (Robert DeNiro), Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), Belle (Dianna Agron), and Warren (John D’Leo) — they’re on their way to yet another new place to lay low, yet another new identity, yet another chance to start a new life when they’d just as soon go back to their old life in Brooklyn, New York given the chance.
There’s just one problem. Giovanni snitched on the mob back home, and thus the whole family is in the care of the federal Witness Protection Program, overseen personally by Agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones). They’d be dead before they left the airport if they ever returned to New York, so Stansfield has relocated the family to Normandy in France, had them assume the identities of Maggie, Belle, Warren and “Fred” Blake, and above all else told them not to draw attention to themselves.
So what do the “Blakes” do? What comes naturally, which, of course, causes more headaches for Stansfield. Young Warren has a knack for figuring out all the angles where “business” opportunities lay. Belle can get whatever she wants either with sweetness or with her fists. Maggie’s a devoted, protective mom with a flair for pyrotechnics, and “Fred” … well, Fred will be the first to tell you he’s a good guy, and he’s only sadistic to people who truly deserve it. As you might imagine, none of them take kindly to being disrespected or bullied, and they all have their own unique ways of delivering payback.
Considering all this, it probably wasn’t the brightest of ideas on Stansfield’s part to put the Blakes neé Manzonis anywhere in France, where as Americans they’re simply bound to encounter disrespect at some point or another. Whether it’s the local plumber trying to scam Fred out of additional cash when called to fix the brown water coming out of the Blakes’ faucets, the townsfolk chirping about how awful Americans are in French and assuming none of them speak the language, or the other kids at Belle and Warren’s school viewing the new arrivals as prey rather than the predators they really are, the poor folks in this nondescript little Normandy town have no idea who they’re dealing with. Thus, the hilarious reprisals they find themselves receiving really are their own fault … sort of.
Writer/director Luc Besson, who in the past has given us unforgettably stylish action yarns such as The Fifth Element, León: The Professional, and the original La Femme Nikita, shows in The Family both his talent for directing comedy and his affection for gangster films. When the action needs to be there, the film doesn’t disappoint, but the majority of the fun here is in watching this anything-but-normal American family try to live their lives in this new and alien environment the only way they know how. Yes, there’s some satire here in terms of how Mom, Dad, and the kids are depicted, but the comedy never becomes too broad; these aren’t caricatures or stereotypes, at least not the central characters. And the French certainly get a ribbing here, as well, in particular in regards to how they tend to view Americans and how things tend to operate in a casually corrupt manner in small towns. When you can’t do anything about it, you just live with it. But when you’re the Manzonis, you certainly can do something about it. And you do.
As much credit as must go to Besson and co-writer Michael Caleo, whose writing credits include working on The Sopranos, so much of what makes The Family work comes from the cast, who one and all are as perfect as possible in their roles. DeNiro gets to have fun sending up the archetype he’s brought to life so many times previously in a way reminiscent of Marlon Brando’s work in the 90’s comedy The Freshman: it’s parody, but it’s gentle and loving in its treatment of an old mob boss set in his ways trying to figure out what it means to be just a “normal” guy. Pfeiffer’s talent for accents and for glares that could kill are both on full display here, and the two together have great chemistry as longtime partners, bickering and all. The “kids” hold their own and provide a lot of the laughs here, too, and Tommy Lee Jones does what he does best: look sour and world-weary while dryly delivering razor-sharp quips.
Can you predict the way the story’s going to go about midway through the film? Sure. Does that diminish in any way how much enjoyment there is to be found from start to finish? Not at all. You could do a lot worse at the box office this weekend than The Family, and if you’re a fan of Scorcese’s cinematic mob dramas, or gangster movies in general, fuhgettaboutit. It’s a must-see.
Score: 4 out of 5
The Family
Starring Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo. Directed by Luc Besson.
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality.