The Family
directed by Luc Besson
directed by Luc Besson
How many serious gangster movies have you seen or least are aware of starring Robert DeNiro? Probably quite a few, right? Now how many gangster movies have you seen that feature a fish out of water gangster who is the often clueless focal point of the resulting comedy? More than a few, yes? Well The Family combined those two genres with mixed results. The Family is black comedy. The director invites laughs at serious but absurd situations.
YMMV on this, given the subject matter and settings. The movie shows that even people who aren't so nice still face the same life challenges as us all.
They get irritated at their spouse for not capping the toothpaste. They have sibling rivalries. They fume at repair men who are late, don't complete the job, or who try to cheat them. They pick up skills and knowledge from their parents' careers and life examples. And when things get tough families stick together against outside threats.
Giovanni Manzoni (DeNiro) is a tough Mafia Boss who is rivals with another Mafia Boss Luchese (Stan Carp). Luchese tries to have Manzoni assassinated in front of his family/along with his family. This breaks the rules so Giovanni decides to rat out Luchese, sending him to prison for multiple life terms.
Giovanni and his beautiful wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron) and son Warren (John D'Leo) all enter the Witness Protection Program. They are watched over by humorless straitlaced FBI Agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).
The Manzoni family (now calling themselves the Blakes) have often had to relocate. Their latest attempt to fit in finds them in a small French village in Normandy.
The humor arises from the fact that Giovanni's penchant for violence, direct confrontation, and refusal to quit until he wins are evident in all his family members. Giovanni's wife, son, and daughter may, pound for pound, be just as dangerous as he is. No one in the family takes any guff from anyone.
DeNiro also plays Giovanni as a loving father and husband and reasonable fellow of good humor, liberally employing his famed smirk and facial grimaces. Giovanni writes his memoirs while pretending to be a WW2 historian. Giovanni doesn't know anything about Normandy. Giovanni knows a lot about the Mafia and is eager to share, something which irritates Stansfield.
One of the Manzonis makes a mistake that gives away their location to certain people back home. I didn't expect much from this film. It was ok. The contrast between the humor and violence can be jarring. Scorsese was a producer so there is a funny scene where Giovanni watches and critiques Scorsese's Goodfellas (in which DeNiro starred).
