Billed as an action comedy and adapted from Tonino
Benacquista's novel, director Luc Besson's film suffers from an identity
crisis. Released elsewhere as The Family, here it is released as We’re A Nice Normal Family. Quite a mouthful for a movie title. And quite an
unnecessary adjustment that may not reflect well in Singapore. I mean, yes, in
Singapore, we all dream to have a normal, nice family and we want our
neighbours to be of such background too. But it is safe enough for us here in
Singapore, to not be obsessed with the notion up to the point where we want our
movie title to have that included or shoved in our faces. To make
it worse, in India, the film is called "Malavita". And if you were to
ask, what's in a name? Well...
Well, the film gets its name after the faithful canine, which the family loses in a bloody fight.
But "Malavita" is not the dog's story. Unless it denotes, that every mobster leads a dog's life!
This is the tale of mobster Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) and his family that includes his wife, daughter, son and his dog.
Giovanni, after snitching on his mafia friends, is forced to lead a nomadic life along with his family. They relocate with assumed identities, under the US government's Witness Relocation Program to protect themselves as there is a contract on his head and a hit man on their trail. The problem is, instead of leading a quiet life; they keep drawing attention to themselves by refusing to put up with disrespect and injustice, which is fairly constant—in fact the only constant theme in the movie.
In Normandy, France Giovanni is Fred Blake who pretends to be an aspiring writer after he finds a discarded old manual typewriter. He decides to write his memoirs against the wishes of his wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones), who is saddled to keep the Blakes alive.
The rest of the family too has their share of action, a-la-mob.
The film speaks about issues of good and evil, honesty and deceit, intelligently and insightfully. The criminal psyche of Fred is justified with his good intentions. The film dwells on the lines of "Goodfellas" and makes a couple of references to it.
Most characters in the film are stereotypical and predictable. The actors give convincing and intense performances. But what's missing is the whole “gelling” of the melo-drama and comedy in the storyline, especially in the scenes that lead to the climax. Also, the climax does not elicit any real thrill or tension or comic elements.
Designed as a semi-period film, there are serious tonal issues with "Malavita". Luc Besson, along with co-writer Micheal Caleo, has tried hard to maintain an even keel with the presentation. The structure fluctuates between a noir mobster film and a comedy, and in the end achieving a mash of confusions.
In reality, "Malavita" seems like a couple of half-baked movies, badly sewn together. The end result seems to be a forced, uneven and uninspiring. In Singapore, it can be seen as lack of moral values and teachings.
Well, the film gets its name after the faithful canine, which the family loses in a bloody fight.
But "Malavita" is not the dog's story. Unless it denotes, that every mobster leads a dog's life!
This is the tale of mobster Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) and his family that includes his wife, daughter, son and his dog.
Giovanni, after snitching on his mafia friends, is forced to lead a nomadic life along with his family. They relocate with assumed identities, under the US government's Witness Relocation Program to protect themselves as there is a contract on his head and a hit man on their trail. The problem is, instead of leading a quiet life; they keep drawing attention to themselves by refusing to put up with disrespect and injustice, which is fairly constant—in fact the only constant theme in the movie.
In Normandy, France Giovanni is Fred Blake who pretends to be an aspiring writer after he finds a discarded old manual typewriter. He decides to write his memoirs against the wishes of his wife, Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Agent Robert Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones), who is saddled to keep the Blakes alive.
The rest of the family too has their share of action, a-la-mob.
The film speaks about issues of good and evil, honesty and deceit, intelligently and insightfully. The criminal psyche of Fred is justified with his good intentions. The film dwells on the lines of "Goodfellas" and makes a couple of references to it.
Most characters in the film are stereotypical and predictable. The actors give convincing and intense performances. But what's missing is the whole “gelling” of the melo-drama and comedy in the storyline, especially in the scenes that lead to the climax. Also, the climax does not elicit any real thrill or tension or comic elements.
Designed as a semi-period film, there are serious tonal issues with "Malavita". Luc Besson, along with co-writer Micheal Caleo, has tried hard to maintain an even keel with the presentation. The structure fluctuates between a noir mobster film and a comedy, and in the end achieving a mash of confusions.
In reality, "Malavita" seems like a couple of half-baked movies, badly sewn together. The end result seems to be a forced, uneven and uninspiring. In Singapore, it can be seen as lack of moral values and teachings.
