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The Family Movie Review Summary

Actors: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfieffer

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Family


With Director Luc Besson, starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones, this action-comedy gets inside the personal dramas of a fictional mafia family and what extremes they will go through just to protect each other. De Niro plays the patriarch of the The Manzoni family, yes, a mob family from New York, who has to be relocated much more regularly than the Feds would like.   When they end up in Normandy, France under the witness protection program, as the ‘Blake' family, a simple error puts them back on the mob radar. The characters reinvent themselves each time they are forced to move and the two teenagers, one girl and one boy, show just how much they have assimilated from being on the run and for having mob blood. De Niro's reinvention as a writer poses a particular problem for the long-standing Fed assigned to their case, Robert Stansfield, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Stansfield realizes Giovanni Manzoni aka Fred Blake is not writing a fiction novel but rather a true autobiography! Oh, the stories Manzoni can tell - all the ones the Feds don't want shared. Michelle Pfeiffer is adorable as the Italian matriarch, with her Brooklyn accent, trying to be a good Catholic mom by attending church and organizing a barbeque to meet the neighbors. No member of the family is, of course, normal, or are the situations they find themselves in.
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Best part of story, including ending: This funny and entertaining movie is worth the watch. If you are looking for something as brilliant and witty as “Analyze This” and “Analyze That,” you might be disappointed. For a simple, humorous and non-brain straining action-comedy, watching De Niro do his stuff,especially with Tommy Lee Jones as the Fed, "The Family" will leave you feeling amused.


Best scene in story: When Robert De Niro, as Fred Blake, is invited to an evening event, as an 'author,' to discuss a movie and instead it becomes his take on life.

Opinion about the main character: Loved the main character for his tough guy attitude with the teddy bear heart when it comes to his family.

The review of this Movie prepared by Movie Man a Level 1 Blue Jay scholar

Fred and Maggie Manzioni and their two teenage children, Belle and Warren are in the witness protection program after Fred testified against a mob boss and put him in prison. They've been relocated in Normandy after their tendancy to revert to their old ways of solving problems has given away their location - again. Maggie just wants to settle in so that they don't have to keep moving. Fred starts to pen his memoirs and becomes focused on figuring out why the town water runs brown. Warren has his sights on getting revenge on the town bully after getting a beating on his first day of school. Belle falls in love with the handsome young teaching assistant. And things get a little crazy when the family just can't help being who they have always been - blowing up a local grocery, putting the plumber in the hospital, and other crazy activities.

Of course, word gets back to the mob in America and pretty soon they are all scrambling to save each others lives.
Best part of story, including ending: I loved this quirky set of characters. De Niro does an awesome job of playing the mob guy, as usual, and it was a treat to see Pfieffer playing a great mob wife role. The kids are typical teenagers in some ways but they are so much more and they won't accept anyone treating them in a manner that is less than they believe hey deserve.

Best scene in story: My favorite scene was when Belle is walking home on her first day of school and takes a ride from some local boys after she realizes she is lost. They don't take her home though. They take her out to the country with the intention of "welcoming" her to their town. But she figures it out quickly and teaches the head guy a lesson with a tennis racket that he will never forget and then leaves them all stranded when she jumps in the car and heads back to town.

The review of this Movie prepared by Danielle McGaw a Level 2 American Robin scholar

Script Analysis of The Family

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Plot & Themes

Composition of Book Actual chase scenes or violence 50%Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives 30%Feelings, relationships, character bio/development 20% Time/Era of Movie:    -   present 2000+ Crime & Police Story?    -   Yes Crime story:    -   criminal becomes sensitive Criminal enemy is...    -   Mafia conflict If this is a criminal POV story...    -   criminals portrayed sympathetically on the run

Main Character

Identity:    -   Male Profession/status:    -   accused criminal    -   criminal Age:    -   40's-50's Nudity    -   Slightly see-through clothes Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White (American)

Setting

Europe    -   Yes European country:    -   France Small town?    -   Yes Small town people:    -   nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   non-gory references to death/punishment    -   gory visuals of deaths Kind of violence:    -   hand to hand Any profanity?    -   Some foul language

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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