The Family (2013): Review

This weekend I went and saw the new movie The Family with my family and going into this movie I was excited to see what it would be because I was intrigued by the trailers and what I saw looked like an interesting set up.  This movie was fun to watch and takes you on a snapshot within the journey of this family.  It was quite predictable and at times a bit sluggish but overall it was a fun moseying ride.
They Family is a movie about an ex-mob family who is in witness protection.  They have been in the program for many years (I think it was six) and they have just been relocated to a new small town in Normandy, France.  They keep getting relocated because they just don't really fit in.  As you would expect they are in the witness protection program because the father Fred, played by Robert De Niro, ratted on his fellow mobsters and they are now trying to hunt him down and kill his family.  In this new town, he pretends to be a writer and takes on the task of writing his memories of being a mob boss and this allows the avenue of flash backs to their time in the mall.  The mother Maggie, played by Michelle Pfiepher, struggles with assimilating but is the glue in the family and getting them adjusted to their new environment.  The daughter Belle, played by Dianna Agron, is seventeen and discovers she fancies the college math tutor and generally is a person who listens and connects with her younger brother Warren, played by John D'Leo, who sets up multiple hustles and schemes at the school to keep himself interested.  Also thrown in the mix is FBI agent Robert Stansfield, played by Tommy Lee Jones, who is tired of all the problems this family and specifically Fred causes him and two FBI surveillance agents.  As this family struggles with not really fitting in with this Normandy town and the mob back in the states' assassin catching up with them the family has to do what they can to survive.
This movie was worth watching and I think of it as a Sunday afternoon movie.  It takes it time to get where it is going and focuses on a short snapshot of this family and their dynamics but it holds interest but it nothing super exciting.  I liked the interactions between the characters and actors and especially liked the children's interactions with each other and how they work to support each other.  There is a lot of violence in the sense that people die and you know they are being abused but it is not shown directly and their is minimal gore.  This movie is really about the characters.  I think the movie tried to be funnier then it was, I did not find it super funny although the trailers did focus on that aspect of the movie.
Like I said, this is more of a Sunday afternoon, watch on television movie, but compared to some of the stinkers movies out right now, it holds up fairly well.

My Rating: 2