The Family

  First Hit:  There were amusing moments but it was more of a drama than dark comedy and in this realm it was unexceptional.

Frank Blake (AKA Giovanni Manzoni played by Robert De Niro) is hiding out in France with his family; wife Maggie Blake (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle Blake (Dianna Agron) and son Warren Blake (John D’Leo). Blake/Manzoni is hiding out in France because he’s in a witness protection program headed by Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).

His whole family cannot seem to hide out innocuously therefore Stansfeld has been moving them every 60 days. They just can't seem to stop causing trouble and bring attention to themselves wherever they move. Because Manzoni ratted on another Mafia boss thereby sending him to prison, he and his family are the active targets for assassination by the boss’s henchmen.

Where this film is fun and interesting is when either child is leading the scene or when Maggie is working her magic. Maggie gets pissed that a French store owner demeans her behind her back, so she blows up the store. Daughter Belle brutally takes care of French boys who have no manners, while son Warren sizes up everything and everyone and then arranges things to his advantage.

This is where the comedy comes and then goes. Maggie’s attitude toward each scene, showing her softer side or her hard New York City wasp side is fabulous. When the kids come together to save the family, the action part of this film comes together.

De Niro, although the primary male role, didn’t steal this film, his family did. Pfeiffer was fabulous. Her accent, attitude and actions were fully engaging and kept me interested in her scenes. Agron was really great. I enjoyed her strength and softness and felt she did a great job of embodying them. D’Leo was very strong as the young son who has embodied his dad’s wiliness, street smarts and the ability to put two and two together quickly. Jones seemed tired and uninterested in this role. Luc Besson and Michael Caleo wrote a confused script. If it was to be more of a black comedy, they needed more humor, if they were going strictly action, they needed better setups. Luc Besson directed this without a clear focus of the type/genre it was to be.

Overall:  Although the film didn’t really know its focus, many of the scenes were very enjoyable.

I Give It a Year

First Hit:  Laugh out loud funny in moments and a little overdone and mishandled in others.

Maybe there is a trend these days to portray therapists as dolts and in need of more therapy than their own clients, and this film does it as well.

The first few scenes with the therapist and then at wedding reception telegraph the ending a bit more than I liked. Nat (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Rafe Spall) have a torrid 7 months together and marry. Was this too early? That is the question the film attempts to answer.

Their friends and family “give it a year”. That their minister gags, coughs, and cannot get our “I now pronounce you man and wife”, also is a dead giveaway to the film's ending. Danny (Stephen Merchant) is one of Josh’s friends and his monologue scenes (wedding toast and during dinner conversations) are horribly distasteful and made me cringe.

That anyone would tolerate anyone with such poor taste and not be guided to alter their behavior was unreflective of any truth.

On the plus side, many of the scenes with Nat and Alec (Terence Harvey) were great and funny while scenes with Josh and Diana (Jane Asher) were touching and reflective.

Byrne is both beautiful and effective as a reserve, active, interesting, and a successful woman who is flustered by Alec from the moment they meet. Spall is strong as the husband who lives by the beat of a different drum from his wife. He isn’t very active, has an odd sense of humor, and is less sophisticated than his wife. Merchant is great at being a total disgusting jerk but I thought his character was really unnecessary in this film. Harvey is perfect as the guy who steals Nat’s heart. Asher is very good as the somewhat shy idealist who wants Josh to fight for her. Minnie Driver plays a friend of theirs and her scenes are wonderfully effective. It was good to see her again. Dan Mazer wrote and directed this. Some of the comedy was gross and ineffective but other aspects of the film were good and spot on.

Overall:  Although uneven, there are good lines and qualities in this film. However it is better suited to watching On Demand.

Afternoon Delight

First Hit:  At times, very insightful and interesting, other times the film was lost and some scenes needed cutting or a re-write.

The home life of Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Jeff (Josh Radnor) is one of a couple that is out of sync with each other. Rachel isn’t working, or attempts to write from time to time.

Jeff has made it big with developing “apps” and the results have put them in a nice home in Silver Lake California, a close community to downtown LA. They have a young son and hang out with friends, like themselves, mid-thirties, successful, and working a lot.

Their sex life is spoken about by whether they put the dog out or not. It’s code. Mostly they don’t have sex because as we learn Rachel would like it in the afternoon while Jeff is always working. To spice up their life they and another couple go to a strip club where Jeff buys Rachel a lap dance with McKenna (Juno Temple).

It unnerves her in two ways, she’s intrigued by her feelings and also confused by them. She doesn’t want to be curious but is. Rachel tracks down McKenna and begins to have coffee walks with her. One day McKenna is being thrown out of her car and Rachel offers her their nanny’s room.

Rachel discovers that McKenna makes no bones about being a sex worker but is also of a very sweet kind disposition and loves kids. But when Rachel has a real opportunity to let McKenna show this side of her, she fails and things blow-up.

Hahn is very effective as a troubled wife, who has some demons (the energy work scene points out this very powerfully) she needs to deal with. Radnor is good as the pre-occupied husband. Temple is sublime as the sex worker. She brings a real presence to the film and succeeds in being the driver of the story. Jane Lynch is both interesting and horrible as the therapist treating Rachel. She brought a strong presence, but as a comedy sequence where “she shares” her own story, it fails miserably. These scenes needed a full rewrite. Jessica St. Clair, Michaela Watkins, Annie Mumolo were all very good in their roles and Rachel’s closest friends. Jill Soloway both wrote and directed this film. From a writing aspect, some scenes were great while others were horrible. She did a good job of directing the film and giving strength to the characters, however some scenes were just not required or needed re-writing.

Overall:  This film has some very good things to say and could have been better.

The Worlds End

First Hit:  Although funny at times, it wore on me and, in the end, didn’t quite work.

The film starts our rather drudgingly with Gary King (Simon Pegg) in some sort of support group telling a story that gets no intelligent discernible feedback from other members of the group.

Next thing you know, he’s recruiting his old friends to take a trip back to village where then stopped a tour of 12 Pubs some twenty years earlier. He wants them to finish the tour, like it will make his life different. King is manipulative and in a way that made me groan. Anyone falling for is stupid arguments for going deserved what they got.

Regardless of the quote un quote friendship that may have existed, there is really nothing that binds this group together. However, without this piece there would be no film, so… His friends in this caper are Steven (Paddy Considine), Andy (Nick Frost), Peter (Eddie Marsan), and Oliver (Martin Freeman).

The banter (writing) between the blokes, at times was laugh-out-loud outstanding, but in between the improbable plot and outcome put a dark (forget it) cloud over the entire film. It is like some of the bits were great, but the whole was left wanting.

The epilogue, sort of speak, did not help the cause of the film and therefore the ending was – “The World’s End”.

Pegg was funny at times but his character wore on me and I would have been rid of him early if I were one of his blokes. Considine, Frost, Marsan, and Freeman were all solid in their roles and upheld the story line very well. Pegg and Edgar Wright wrote the improbably script while Wright did a reasonable job as director tying it all together.

Overall:  Not much to enjoy except the funny bits which come few and far between.

Drinking Buddies

First Hit:  Better than expected film about an alcoholic comfort zone and relationships.

Kate (Olivia Wilde) likes her independence. She chooses when to see and have sex with her boyfriend Chris (Ron Livingston). She works at a brewery with Luke (Jake Johnson) with whom she has a close, flirty drinking relationship.

Luke is obviously attracted to the beautiful Kate but also has stable, grounded, thoughtful girlfriend named Jill, (Anna Kendrick). Immediately the story lets you know that Luke doesn’t want a lot of responsibility, lives in Jill’s home and likes the laid back boozy life of making beer, drinking any time at work and after work with Kate and their work mates.

Jill is a responsible teacher, wants a long term plan, marriage, and a family. Kate is lost and although we never get why she is so afraid to commit to Chris or any one, Wilde makes the audience want her character to find happiness.

Chris, with limited screen time makes his presence known that he’s looking or more than a boozy late night booty call. The lynch pin of the film is a 2 day trip the four of them take together to a mountain cabin, where it becomes obvious who is better matched to whom.

The obvious issue of functional alcoholism is never addressed directly, but we see where it is going although the protagonist may or may not.

Wilde is excellent at being the beautiful girl who is afraid to commit personally. Livingston, makes his presence known in his few pointed scenes - good job. Johnson is superb at being the laid back, nice guy, and friend to all while being a functional alcoholic. His verbal manipulation not only tricks others but belies himself as well. Kendrick, is very good as the controlled woman, who has a plan for her life and seems to love Luke for all the wrong reasons. Joe Swanberg wrote and directed this film. He’s writing is spot on for the characters although they might be too clearly defined, he cannot be faulted for this. His direction and scenes are set up well and work really well.

Overall:  A surprisingly enjoyable and thoughtful film.