The Family is a French film...with some American input.
Taken as a whole, I rate the film as 5 out of a possible 10
Taken as a whole, I rate the film as 5 out of a possible 10
Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer did a good job, were true to their roles and I have no problem with the acting in the movie. The movie fell apart as a result of cliches, shallow writing and "dumb" attempts to reconcile French culture and American - Italian gangster culture.
Giovanni Maznoni (Robert De Niro), and his wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) are in the US witness protection program along with their children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) and they're living in France. Tommy Lee Jones plays an FBI Special agent who leads a protection detail. In reality, the protection would not be managed by the FBI, but it's a movie.
So far, it works well enough.
However as the movie moves forward, the plot gets "stupid" and just a bit too much "French", playing on American stereotypes about rude French people -- which made no sense to me. I've spent time in France and find that French people in Paris are just about as obnoxious as Americans in New York City - otherwise, France is a nice place and its people are also very nice. The movie made them all look like uncouth slobs.
It was $12.00 that I'll never see again.