An interesting film to discuss from a screenwriting perspective. The film suffers from many flaws, but does have some ability to entertain.

One of the things we talk about as writers is the importance of establishing tone, and maintaining it. The Family opens with a brutal killing scene devoid of any humor or lightness. The antagonist, a hit man, is introduced here, and there is nothing remotely humorous.

Then we move on to our ensemble cast, the family of a mobster relocated in the Witness Protection Program to a small town in Normandy, France. While the mobster, played by R. Dinero, is the protagonist, it is a true ensemble in that close attention is paid to the individual journeys of his wife, daughter and son, each who struggles to adapt to life in France.

As the family struggles to find itself in France, it quickly moves to dark comedy. Dark violent comedy. It's often effective in the particular scenes, but the story itself completely lacks any cohesion in theme, tone, or even logic. It's a story that really doesn't know what it wants to be. This lack of cohesion slowly erodes the story until it begins to unravel after the midpoint and completely comes apart in the third act, where there is not a single laugh to be found, and the tone switch leaves things just plain goofy.

I suspect this is the kind of thing that can happen when too many talented writers are brought on board. There are signs of talent involved. For example, there is a little scene where the daughter gets a break up phone call from the teacher she is in love with. The FBI guys listening in on her tapped phone feel bad for her and express outrage at the cowardly call from the teacher. Adding this was a clever touch, though overall the daughter/teacher story line is a complete dead end.

Dinero does fine work with this incoherent plot, as does Michelle Pfeifer and the acters who played the kids. Tommy Lee Jones, poor guy, looks like a corpse come to life for one last dance in the sun. It's unfair how people age differently, and this guy looks 15 years older than his age, and even his voice has lost its strength.

One last thing. The bad guys looked really, really cool...at first. The main hit man in his Sicilian suit looked pretty movie world authentic and hard boiled...but then he talked! And he had the voice of Curly Neil. Cewartainly...nuck nuck. And the rest of the bad guys also went from cool to goofy, which would have been fine if this was a clear cut comedy...but with the tonal shifts, it wasn't, and the last act was all violence and no humor, so goofy really stood out.

Heh, I thought it was a huge disappointment, all over the place, and a list of other things.

It was like they showed all the best parts in the trailer.