We're A Nice Normal Family
Luc Besson
Director Luc Besson’s stab at black comedy is neither dark enough nor funny enough. Maybe it is a case of a different cultural sensibility of humour that does not quite translate from French to English for the director of The Fifth Element (1997).
Giovanni Maznoni (Robert De Niro) is a mobster who snitched and is now living in France under the witness protection programme with his wife Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), daughter Belle (Dianna Agron of TV’s Glee) and son Warren (John D’Leo). Their minder is exasperated FBI agent Stansfield (Tommy Lee Jones).
It turns out that dad is not the only one with violent tendencies: There is some fun in watching how each member of the family unleashes an explosive side when cornered, angered or just mildly provoked.
But instead of stretching this out for more laughs, the movie gets distracted with, among other things, a cute mathematics tutor for Belle, while Giovanni goes in search of the culprit behind the town’s brown tap water.
(ST)