The Family 2013

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 (Tommy Lee Jones) to keep them in line Fred Manzoni (Robert De Niro) his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and their children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John DLeo) cant help but revert to old habits and blow their cover by handling their problems the family way enabling their former mafia cronies to track them down. Chaos ensues as old scores are settled in the unlikeliest of settings in this darkly funny film by Luc Besson (Taken Transporter).

Review

"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 ManzoniFred 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 ȫlack comedy" equal parts ItalianAmerican 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 metacriticalcomedic 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 ȯ" 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.