The Family (2013)
Certified: 15
Duration: 111 minutes
Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo, Jimmy Palumbo, Domenick Lombardozzi, Stan Carp, Vincent Pastore
KRS release
Robert De Niro is Giovanni Manzoni who once was a well-known and infamous New York gangster. Now, however, he is in the witness protection programme after revealing all about the mob.
This meant that he and his family had had to go and live in France, under the supervision of Agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones). For Stansfield, the Manzoni family will be quite a tough nut to keep under wraps.
Giovanni is accompanied by his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) also notorious in her dealings, his intelligent son Warren (John D’Leo) and Belle (Dianna Agron), still a teenager but already a whole barrel of trouble.
Soon the Manzonis are back to their old ways. They get into trouble with the mayor and plumber and end up using violence. When a man insults Maggie he gets his grocery store burnt down. Belle falls in love and beats the other girls to smithereens and Warren soon has his school running according to his whims.
Meanwhile, Giovanni wants to write a book which neither the mob nor the FBI will like. At some point, the mob will find where they are and mobsters will be descending in their droves on this quiet little town… and France will never be the same again.
The Family is silly and insane but joyfully and delightfully so.
It’s as if Pfeiffer’s classic mob comedy Married to the Mob (1988) was fused with the energy and over-the-top sensibilities of Luc Besson’s cartoon action and the result is The Family.
Under the executive production of Martin Scorsese and Besson’s ephemeral direction, The Family seems to be playing a game of tongue-in-cheek as it enjoys lampooning itself, mob movies and the classic De Niro image.
The film is liberal in its mix of dark comedy, splashes of sarcasm and black humour. The resulting mafia family is almost an amalgamation of The Sopranos as if they had entered through the weird world of Dark Shadows (2012) but with added spice and less lethargy than the characters that populated the latter. What is enjoyable here is seeing them trying to adapt and live a normal life but then simply decide to be themselves.
At times the film reaches grotesque levels. Seeing Jones trying to keep up is a hoot. In no way is this cast taking the film seriously as they simply play to the audience’s whims and mood.
The film culminates in an explosive action showdown that is all pulpish and cartoonish. De Niro, in particular, is having fun and showing it off immensely as he sports a sardonic look that is enviable. It’s as if he is saying “this is a normal work day for me. What are you looking at!”
Besson handles the action in a comical way, leaving the comedy to his seasoned cast. As the director of such films as Leon (1994), The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) and The Fifth Element (1997), he knows that action is his forte.
Overall, the film has a cool and slick style that is very fluid. However, thanks to his two main stars, the tempo seems to come easy for them making sure that The Family combines well the genres that it sets out to master.
The Family, based on the 2010 novel Malavita by Tonio Benaquista, works as a parody of the gangster films, even more so as a slice of enjoyable, silly entertainment. The gangster genre will not be and feel the same after this.