Plot
The Manzoni family, a notorious mafia clan, is relocated to Normandy, France under the witness protection program, where fitting in soon becomes challenging as their old habits die hard.
Release Year: 2013
Rating: 6.5/10 (748 voted)
Director:Luc Besson
Storyline
A mafia boss and his family are relocated to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of CIA Agent Stansfield (
Filming Locations: Studios de Paris, La Cité du Cinéma, Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, France
Box Office Details
Budget: $30,000,000
(estimated)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
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User Review
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"Like Al Capone said, asking polite with a gun in your hand is better
than asking polite with nothing." Giovanni
Family values in The Family are not your father's values unless, like
me, your grandfather ran a numbers business in the basement of his
barbershop. All of Kodak Park enjoyed that true color.
The Giovanni Manzoni/Fred Blake (Robert De Niro) family has a
paterfamilias who is a notorious Mafia don in the FBI witness
protection plan. (De Niro as a mobster is the fall's most unimaginative
casting but he's funny.) His values are ratting on his fellow Mafiosi
to save his legal hide, forcing him to hide with a $20 million reward
dogging him. The family's love for each other is unconditional and
treats challenges with a baseball bat rather than diplomacy. If a
Frenchman disrespects Americans, he might find his supermarket in
flames.
If this sounds like a story to turn the nuns' heads completely around,
don't worry; it's ultra "black comedy," equal parts Italian-American
gangster satire and laughable domestic shenanigans. That midway in the
film Fred gets to speak on the merits of GoodFellas before a French
crowd in Normandy is one of the nice meta-critical-comedic turns
followed by carnage we've come to expect from Mob films. It's pretty
much territory owned by Scorsese and De Niro. Additionally, the use of
the "f" word has never been so deftly played in a comedy.
Besides the joy of seeing De Niro have a good time with the many tough
characters he has played in his career, you get to see Tommy Lee Jones
play a gruff FBI agent, Robert Stansfield, who can trade barbs with his
charge, Fred, who has such a propensity for violence (he beats up the
only plumber within 20 miles of town) that Fred is a full time job for
Robert. If Jones's face can't scare Fred into being a good boy, then
the threat of losing witness protection does the trick.
Directed with wicked tongue in cheek by La Femme Nikita's stylish Luc
Besson, The Family sports an accomplished supporting cast: Michelle
Pfeiffer as mom Maggie is gritty Brooklyn with her famous beauty well
preserved. The two kids played by Diana Argon and John D'Leo are spot
on sweetly dangerous as you might expect.
It's all in GoodFellas fun, a mildly amusing and unusual story that
beats many mainstream comedies this year.
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