Ex-Mafioso Robert De Niro has to move his family to France under the witness protection scheme after threats against his life. Review of the black comedy The Family right here.
Having carved out much of his career playing gangsters, Robert De Niro revisits the genre for a dark comedy The Family. Giovanni Manzoni (De Niro) his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his two children have been relocated to a small suburb in France, under the watchful eye of FBI agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).
Settling in seems to be quite difficult, with the children finding trouble at school and De Niro and Pfeiffer finding it hard to shake their bad habits, i.e. beating people to a pulp with baseball bats and blowing up supermarkets.
Even though the family are supposed to be lying low, they invite the whole town to a barbeque, while De Niro, who has changed his name from Giovanni to Fred, is attempting to write his memoirs in hope that it becomes a novel.
It’s not a bad film, but one that won’t last long in the memory.
The story of Fred being a writer is soon spread around the town and he is invited to a film debate club. He attends, only to find out that the film being shown is Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas – a film that De Niro obviously starred in. 
Luc Besson had a string of hits in the 90’s, including the brilliant Leon (or The Professional in some countries) so he is a very able filmmaker, yet some of that talent is lost in this rather by-the-numbers gangster flick.
Some of the plot is over-the-top, for example the manner in which the gangsters, who are attempting to kill Giovanni and his family for $20 million, find out where they are now living. It really is a preposterous chain of incidents and not believable in the slightest.
The cast all do a decent job but the story doesn’t hit all the right notes.
Overall Thoughts:
The Family, like many before it, adds comedy to the gangster genre, but don’t expect to find yourself laughing. It’s not a bad film, but one that won’t last long in the memory.
