Family Matters

And just like that, we go from one of the year's best movies to one that is... not quite so close to that pedestal. Based on Tonino Benacquista's mobster novel 'Malavita', The Family is the first movie from Frenchman Luc Besson to get a wide release in the States since 2006's Arthur and the Invisibles. Despite gaining fame in the director's chair for such fare as Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element, Besson is nowadays better known as a producer, and his tutelage has helped develop many films we still love today, including the Transporter series, Taken and more recently Colombiana and Lockout. Producing would seem to be his strength, but every so often he steps back into the director's chair when it suits him, this time to tackle the violent comedy that has often been his staple.

In this case, the story of The Family is based on the duality of the title. On one side is the family you raise; father, mother, children, the family pet. This is the family of blood ties, the ones you love unconditionally. The other "family" is the mob; ruthless, bloodthirsty and loyal to one another and the "don", the father of the gang. It's these two families Giovanni Manzoni (Robert De Niro) is forced to choose between, and his snitching on the mafia has forced his remaining family - wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer) and children Belle (Dianna Agron) and Warren (John D'Leo) - deep into hiding with the witness protection program. Under the watchful and humorless eye of FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones), the Manzoni's attempt to carve out a new life in their new Normandy home. But old habits are hard to break, though their issues with authority may be their smallest concerns if Giovanni's former family were ever to find out where they were hiding.

Man, De Niro is not young anymore.

The immediate problem I see when The Family gets going is an utter lack of focus. Yes, the main plot is about the mob locating and trying to murder the Manzonis (thanks to an series of impossibly contrived circumstances), but in truth only about twenty minutes of the nearly two-hour flick even deals with this thread, and poorly at that. Instead most of the movie is split between each character's side story. Giovanni tries to face and justify his criminal past by writing his tell-all memoirs, while also tracking down why the water coming out of his pipes is brown. Maggie struggles to adapt to her new surroundings and the unwelcoming personalities of rural France. Belle crushes on a college student and fights off unwanted advances, while Warren turns his new school into his own little mafia training ground. Each character has plenty to do, although it matters little; this is a group of antisocial, hyper-violent malcontents, and the fact that they are the heroes of the tale can't help but feel a little bit wrong. For instance, while it's great to see Agron's character take down a group of boys who were going to try and have their way with her, you can't help but enjoy. But when she has the exact same reaction to a girl who steals her pencil case, you get the feeling that maybe it's not such a good idea to root for these people after all.

This is generally the first sign that your family might be insane.

At least they're admirably acted... well, most of them in any case. De Niro appears to be having a grand old time, especially since the film both lampoons and pays homage to the mobster flicks that made him a household name (in one particularly meta scene, he enjoys a viewing with some associates of Martin Scorcese's Goodfellas), and that energy translates into his performance, which is a step above his usual mobster routine. Jones meanwhile puts in his usual "Agent K" effort, resisting the urge to smile and humanize himself for the sake of levity. For those in the audience who like him, it'll be like Christmas in the Fall. For those who are not Jones' fans, The Family will be another example of his supposed mediocrity. Meanwhile, the film handily belongs to the ladies. Pfeiffer resumes her career resurgence by proving that she is willing and able to go hand-in-hand with De Niro's madness, while the aforementioned Agron is delightfully devilish as a daughter who is more alike to her parents than she would like to admit. I know I put down her role a little bit in the last paragraph, but I would like to clarify: any problems I have with the characters in this movie are not the result of the acting, but a lousy script - co-written by Besson and Michael Caleo - that the actors have to do their best to overcome. Most of them - D'Leo's cliched mob son notwithstanding - manage to do just that, although the clear winners here are definitely Pfeiffer and Agron.

She just can't get out of high school though.

When the time the movie comes to a jarring halt (thanks to an unarguably terrible ending), you can't help but feel that Besson might have benefited from staying out of the director's chair for this one. Plot threads are left wholly unexplored or incomplete, characters take paths completely outside their established behaviors, and the tonal changes of The Family so quickly shudder between violent comedy and serious thriller that it's clear there was an identity crisis on set. With gag scenes quickly giving way to vindictive cruelty, one has to believe that Besson's lack of polish here was an unintentional one, and that The Family fails to make its mark thanks to rustiness and not merely ineptitude. There are sparks of wit and charm scattered throughout the film, enough to suggest that this could even have been a GOOD film in someone else's hands. Sadly, Besson did not play to his strengths as a producer, and The Family suffers from his neglect.

"Forgive me, Lord, for I am about to sin."

Lucky Number Four

These days, I think every author of teen books is trying to replicate the monumental success of Twilight. Why shouldn't they? Besides the fact that author Stephenie Meyer's name has become nearly on par with that of Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling when discussing books for teens, she could literally fill a swimming pool with small bills and take a dip, so well do her books sell. Even the final book in the series - Breaking Dawn, which many FANS admit was a ridiculous mess - sold over a million copies just in the first twenty-four hours of sales. On top of that, the money generated from producing the movies based on the vampire/werewolf romance novels have been hugely successful, and made stars out of leads Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Sure, teen novels have been turned into films before, but not until Harry Potter and Twilight have they been so amazingly profitable. And if you're a production studio adapting popular series of books like these to the big screen, you have a franchise that can potentially make you guaranteed money for years to come. That brings us to I Am Number Four, based on the book by Pittacus Lore, the pen name of authors James Frey (he of A Million Little Pieces fame) and Jobie Hughes. Though the first book in this series was only released last August, the rights to the film had been purchased nearly a year prior by Michael Bay and Dreamworks pictures, hoping that the planned six-part book series would make for a popular film franchise. I don't know how that will work out for them, but I was interested enough in the premise to check out this film, even if I know I'm well past the age of the target audience.

So this is small-town America, huh? Looks dirty

I Am Number Four introduces us to the Loriens, aliens who live among us and are the last survivors of an extinct race. There are nine special teens, who were created to protect their home planet from other aliens, the warmongering Mogadorians, but never got the chance. Now separated and hiding on Earth, one teen (Alex Pettyfer) begins to develop the powers needed to fight these evil creatures and protect his new home from possible invasion. The Mogadorians have followed these escapees to our planet and hunted down three of their prey, with Number Four now in their sights.

This is going to make some things... difficult

When I saw Michael Bay's name pop up in the opening credits, I knew I was going to see a lot of special effects and explosions. He does demand things to be awesome, after all. I also expected to be put to sleep by uninteresting characters and stretches of boring exposition. I was right about the first part. Boy, was I wrong about the second. While the film has enough action and demolitions to excite at least three of your five senses (especially if you manage to see it in an IMAX theater), I was quite surprised to be greeted with a story that didn't insult my intelligence and characters I could actually sympathize with and enjoy. That isn't to say that the story was PERFECT. In the beginning there's a bit of voice-over to explain the highly descriptive background, and I was afraid there would be much more to come. Thankfully, after setting up the tale the voice overs take permanent hiatus until the film's conclusion, which made sense. Even if they could have avoided using them at all, the story probably needed these monologues to fully integrate the viewer into the film's narrative. Besides that, the film actually does a good job weaving a plot that uses a lot of tiny clues and things left unsaid to actually help move the story forward. Director D.J. Caruso is still learning to be a big-time Hollywood director, but it's a step in the right direction. The alien romance story, however, being between an inhuman outsider a young mortal woman just reeks of Twilight stink, not really a huge surprise but disappointing in its lack of originality.

Officer Jimmy had two days left until retirement

The acting here is much better than I would have imagined. England-born Pettyfer has plenty of experience playing teen novel heroes at this point. He's been Alex Rider in Stormbreaker, based on the book series by Anthony Horowitz, as well as the lead in this year's Beastly, based on Alex Flynn's reimagining of Beauty and the Beast. Just as 2010 unveiled Garrett Hedlund as a young talent to watch out for, Pettyfer might be one of a few names (including Olivia Wilde and Saoirse Ronan) to keep an eye on once the dust that is 2011 has settled. As the young outsider who has been constantly on the move since arriving on our planet, Four is tired of running and wishes he could just settle down like a normal human being. Pettyfer does a great job in this coming-of-age role, managing to act enough like a normal teen to fool many of the characters around him but different enough to make sure we realize he doesn't actually belong there. Timothy Olyphant adds a lot of character as Four's mentor Henri, a warrior from their home planet dedicated to protecting him at all costs. Some of the best scenes are the verbal interplay between Olyphant and the younger Pettyfer, with Olyphant's mentor role often getting the better of these exchanges. Other solid performances belong to Callan McAuliffe as Four's nerdy friend Sam, Teresa Palmer as a young woman hunting down Four for reasons unknown, and Lost's Kevin Durand as the leader of the evil Mogadorians. The only one who doesn't quite live up to the rest of the talent is Glee's Dianaa Agron as Sarah, Four's love interest. While the character, a former popular girl turned outsider and shunned by those who she once called friends, is interesting enough, she just doesn't quite get all the nuances of the part to fully carry it off. Credit for not making her a useless maiden in distress, though; Sarah is a committed young woman determined to live life her way, and the relationship between her and Four is realistic and honest.

Yes, you came at a bad time

The film doesn't skimp on the fireworks, and many of the inherent effects, including mutations, energy blasts and transformations look simply amazing on the big screen. Since I Am Number Four probably could have been transformed into a 3D film, like so many short-sighted action films before it, it was thankfully decided to bypass the concept in this release. 3D has been such an overused technology since James Cameron reintroduced it in 2009, and for every Piranha 3D or Resident Evil Afterlight that makes it work, there are titles like Green Hornet and Clash of the Titans for which there was no need or even competent implementation. It's an expensive format that costs millions more to make and costs movie watchers twice as much to see in the theaters, so time will tell just how much a game-changer 3D has truly become. Until then it's almost more brave to make this kind of film WITHOUT the 3D label and declare that you don't need all that extra glitz to create an experience worth watching.

Is The Hunger Games next for Pettyfer?

While the story is really no different from teen entertainment like Twilight or the old WB/UPN show Roswell, the fact remains that I Am Number Four is a by-the-numbers teen action film done well enough to be a great experience. It lacks some subtlety, but that's on par for a film financed by Bay. It's currently my #1 for 2011, though I doubt it will have the staying power to remain the whole year on the list. I still question whether a viable franchise can be built out of an unknown quanitity like this. Twilight was in book form for three years before a film was put out. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone took four years between book and film releases. The point I'm trying to make is that you can't force a franchise into existence; sometimes it's those happy mistakes and unforseen events that create the built-in audience you want in a motion picture. When you try to force it, you end up with disappointing returns because there's not enough teenagers giving a damn about your film to spend the money or time, as evidenced by this past weekend's box office. I may not be a Twilight fan, but even I can see how the vampire series made such an impact while Four has struggled out the gate.