The Family *** (2013, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones, Dianna Agron, John D’Leo) – Movie Review

Thanks to some fresh ideas and the right cast, this is an enjoyable, darkly funny, violent comedy riff on the Mafia thriller. The central idea is a great one, providing a new spin on the old gangster situations, and a well-used unusual French regional locale for director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Taxi, Leon, Taken, Transporter).

Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer share excellent chemistry together and both are on very good form as Mr and Mrs Giovanni Manzoni, who find themselves relocated to sleepy rural Normandy under the witness protection programme after snitching on the mob. They are now known to the world as Fred and Maggie Blake. De Niro’s Manzoni was a Brooklyn Mob boss but he turned stool pigeon, and the man who went to jail thanks to him is sending his boys over to France to take care of the Manzoni family, teenage daughter Belle (Dianna Agron) and son Warren (John D’Leo) included.

There’s nothing much to do in Normandy, though a cinema is helpfully showing an old Mob movie directed by Martin Scorsese, the film’s executive producer. So, when the family revert to old habits (De Niro beats up the disrespectful local plumber, the only one in the area; Pfeiffer sets fire to the only local store), their former mafia cronies are able to track them down.

Unsurprisingly the movie has a left-of-field, anarchic French spirit. You get the idea that Besson doesn’t quite get American Mob movies. But De Niro and Pfeiffer are there to keep it authoritatively on track as very New York too. Taking the story properly seriously, Besson presses the action, drama and violence buttons hard. He seems more comfortable with this than with the comedy. Slightly at odds with this, De Niro plays it like one of his American comedies, a variant on his Meet the Parents and Analyze This turns. Understandably Besson seems in awe of De Niro and wisely just lets him get on with it.

Enjoyable though De Niro is, Pfeiffer gives the film’s outstanding performance. She nails it exactly. Good one! Tommy Lee Jones is pretty slack for such a classy actor as CIA Agent Stansfield, the operative trying to look after them and save their sorry skins. The two young actors work hard but they are stuck with charm-free roles they can’t make too appealing. The movie’s just not about them. Vincent Pastore provides the authentic Mob flavour as Fat Willy.

This is an amusing, generally funny film, and very welcome for that. Its best bits are quick witted and great fun, but the rest is patchy, occasionally even clumsy. This a good movie but an opportunity to make a great one is missed thanks to tone and script problems. The switch from broad, spoofy comedy to serious action is tricky to pull off and Besson doesn’t quite manage it. Another re-write on the screenplay, with an extra injection of wit, plus a bit more polish and finesse on the direction, and it would have been classic.

The Family will have to do for the time being. De Niro and Pfeiffer should do another movie together as soon as. They’re a great team.

Besson also co-writes the screenplay with Michael Caleo, based on the book by Tonino Benacquista.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Movie Review

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