Movie Breakdown: The Family

People are doing traditional-style reviews all over the web, so we decided to try something different.  In each “breakdown” we’ll take a look at what a film’s marketing lead us to believe, how the movie actually played, and then what we learned from it all.  Read on!

The Impression:

Martin Scorsese, Luc Besson, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee Jones – that’s a lot of talent for a “mafia” movie that’s being dumped in the doldrums of September.

The Reality:

It’s a shame that The Family is such a half baked film.  Having the story follow a mafia family struggling to shake their old ways while trying to claim a fresh start via a witness protection program is a great concept, but writer/director Luc Besson never really bothers to take advantage of it.  He instead prefers to trade any sort of actual story or character development for gratuitous acts of violence.  On the bright side, Besson does manage to sync these “tough guy” moments with your viewing experience so that every time you start to think the film is getting interesting, you get smashed over the head with a bit of onscreen chaos.  So, The Family at least has that going for it.

The Lesson:

Why so violent?