The Family

Cast of Characters:

Fred Blake/Giovanni Manzoni - Robert De Niro

Maggie Blake - Michelle Pfeiffer

Agent Robert Stansfield - Tommy Lee Jones

Belle Blake - Dianna Agron

Warren Blake - John D'Leo

Director - Luc Besson

Screenplay - Luc Besson & Michael Caleo

Based on the novel Malavita by Tonino Benacquista

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality

      Academy Award winners Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones and Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer star in Luc Besson's crime comedy The Family.

      The Family begins in France with the Blake family - Fred (Robert De Niro), his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their two kids Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) - getting settled into their new home located in a small town near Normandy. Fred, previously a mob boss known as Giovanni Manzoni, performed some negative activity to Brooklyn crime kingpin Don Luchese six years prior to the move. After a failed hit attempt on him, Giovanni rats on Don Luchese, sending the Don to prison and himself into the witness protection program under the supervision of Agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).

      Now in France, the Blake family at first struggle to assimilate within the town. They're looked down upon at first by the French natives, but over time they learn to adapt, particularly the children. Dianna has fallen head over heels for the college kid who subs her class and John has managed to create his own little mini-mafia in the school.

      Back in the 90's, Luc Besson made two films, Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element, both of which I loved. The 2000's though have not been kind to him, far from it. With The Family, almost 20 years after Leon: The Professional, it's a shame that he still hasn't been able to get back on track as this film is as ho-hum as a movie can get for 2013. It's not really the performances. Some of the performances were okay, but that's about it. It all boils down to Besson's writing and direction here, which tonally is all over the place. Suffering from a clear case of identity crisis, The Family can't decide whether it wants to be a dark comedy or a gritty and violent crime film, not to mention all the little heartfelt moments such as the subplot between Belle and her substitute teacher. On top of that, we never really get into why Manzoni had a hit put on him to begin with. At first, the movie showed just a little bit of promise with Maggie and her kids trying to fit in with the town and school respectively, but once Tommy Lee Jones shows up, everything switches gears. Jones is a tremendously talented actor and pairing him up with De Niro looks good on paper. I'm certain in the right film they'd be great together. Whenever they're onscreen here though it's like a completely different movie compared to the rest. As for De Niro, halfway through the film I started thinking to myself, "Wow, he follows up a terrific supporting role in Silver Linings Playbook with The Big Wedding, Killing Season and now this? I bet he can't wait for 2014." Overall, it's just a bland, predictable performance from him with a setup of some Frenchie disrespecting him which leads to him beating them to a pulp while he flashes that trademark smirk of his. De Niro, seriously, you're Jake LaMotta, Vito Corleone, Jimmy Conway, Al Capone, Neil McCauley and "Johnny Boy" Civello. You're much better than this! Oh, and the Goodfellas gag near the climax of the film actually had me utter, "Oh my God... Wow." out loud. Bobby D, you haven't quite trashed your film legacy as much as Pacino has, but why, oh why, must you do this?!

      This is September for you. Summer's gone and we haven't quite reached Oscar season yet, so we're left with this - a bland, generic and extremely uneven film. It tries to be funny yet, aside from a few laughs at the beginning, isn't. When that doesn't work it tries to be dark and tense but ends up being a bore, and when it tries to be heartfelt... well, at that point I just stopped caring. I'm sure the studio thought if they just plaster Martin Scorsese's name as executive producer on the poster near De Niro's name, everyone would get all geeked up about it being a Goodfellas reunion. Well, it isn't. It most definitely isn't. I give The Family a D+ (★½).