We’ve all seen more crime stories involving families being relocated for their own safety than we’d care to count, but there was enough talent and intrigue attached to The Family to ensure that audiences were eager to see what the latest entry in an over-familiar subgenre had to offer.
Luc Besson might be as inconsistent as it gets from a writing, directing, and producing perspective, but he’s proven himself more than capable of knocking it out of the park when delivering his best work. Throw in a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tommy Lee Jones as the erstwhile heroes and villains of the piece, and there was plenty to be excited for.
However, The Family could never settle on a singular or unified tone, instead lurching all over the place from violent crime thriller to heightened comic caper, via jarring doses of self-awareness and meta humor, as well as a couple of flashbacks and fever dreams. It was a decent hit at the box office, though, but reviews were underwhelming to the point of ambivalence.
That being said, iTunes subscribers have cast off the aspersions of a 28 percent Rotten Tomatoes score to deem The Family worthy of their time, after it landed a spot on the platform’s worldwide watch-list, as per FlixPatrol. Everyone involved on either side of the camera is capable of much, much better, but as it stands, the twisting tale of witness protection gone wrong and the repercussions of living a lie has managed to find its way out of trouble.
Published: Aug 23, 2022 03:17 am