There are a few of us who actually didn’t much care for Goodfellas. I know, I know. What kind of monsters are we? Well, let me tell ya: from the opening moments where Henry Hill says, “I always wanted to be a gangster.” That really doesn’t describe me. The lesson I took from Goodfellas is: “unless you’re very lucky, this ends badly, with a lot of ugly violence along the way.” That’s pretty much the lesson I take from all mob movies.
The Family is Henry Hill after the fact – we get to sympathize in comic terms with these pooooooor witness-protected folks stranded in Normandy with bad plumbing and French people. The “Blakes” (nee Manzonis) can’t seem to spend more than five minutes in any given place and nobody wonders why. “Fred” (Robert DeNiro), “Maggie” (Michelle Pfeiffer), “Warren” (John D’Leo), and “Belle” (Dianna Agron) create havoc wherever they go. They don’t waste any time, either. Normandy Invasion, Day 1: Maggie finds the grocer rude and blows up his store. Belle plays a full set of tennis with the head of a French hound (would that be a poodle? That just doesn’t drum up the right image), Warren gets beaten up, presumably, in his free first period while watching girls basketball. Don’t worry, by lunch he already has all the facts he needs for vengeance and has started making his play. Fred is the only one who shows a little restraint, not even touching the first person he meets in the city; he atones by putting the second in traction. Throughout the film, we see several fantasy sequences where Fred in life shows patience while his thoughts betray his violent desires. After the hospital, he drags a guy with his car and time bombs a local plant. And this is restraint.
Where does a guy in witness protection get a time bomb?
I don’t want to cast aspersions, but I find this bent towards violence/destruction so far removed from social norms as bordering on psychosis. This isn’t just humor for the sake of humor, every member of this family retaliates in violent, ugly and immediate fashion and we’re supposed to root for them – they’re the ones who have been wronged. Belle was trapped by the boy; Warren got beaten up; Maggie and Fred were insulted. There’s part of you that wants to say it’s perfectly reasonable to put a shiftless plumber in the hospital, then leg-break up the food chain until you blow up a processing plant so that your tap water is clear.
And then there’s part of you that says, “who the HELL are you people?” This isn’t just the notion of the ugly American. This is a diary of folks who don’t belong in society, anywhere, at any level. That said, I liked The Family more than I didn’t. I’m a little disturbed at how clearly frustrated director Luc Besson is with his fellow nationals. I feel like the Manzonis are his own tool, his own foreign implement to deal with the things he finds so annoying about being French. Instead of truly solving any problem, why not have an American come in and blow it up? We’re a convenient bunch, we Americans, no? We’re like a constant circus sideshow. We have little tolerance for many things and we act, sometimes accordingly, sometimes … less. And, oh boy, do we act. At the end of the day, who’s the scapegoat?
Sometimes the idea of an American is more important than reality, and, hey, this is just a comedy, right? If Henry Hill ignites a small town, well, hey, it probably deserved it. And if you, too, are of that opinion, you might enjoy The Family.
Stranded in France
No room to dance
Come take a chance
On the family Blake
Local admits
Square peg fits
Through violent blitz
It’s a piece of cake
Things go awry
Death coming nigh
You want me to cry?
Oh, for pity’s sake
Rated R, 110 Minutes
D: Luc Besson
W: Luc Besson
Genre: Mob-lite
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: People who see the fun in being a wise guy
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Those not enamored with organized crime
