Post by ronnierocketago on Feb 21, 2010 7:06:45 GMT
FAMILY BUSINESS (1989) - ***1/2
Well this was a pleasant surprise. Just look at that poster, it looks like a dogpile doesn't it? Add that the whole basic premise: Scottish Sean Connery, Italian Dustin Hoffman, and Jewish Matthew Broderick as three generations of the same family...DON'T GO!!![/i] STAY WITH ME! I know man, I know. This looks and sounds like a random shitty comedy doesn't it? Well it does, but the fucker...is good. I can't believe it but it's actually pretty entertaining.
I guess that's what I get for underestimating the great director Sidney Lumet. You know that guy that apparently wasn't good enough to win an Oscar. Yeah he made unAcademy material like DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETWORK, THE ANDERSON TAPES, Q&A, PRINCE OF THE CITY, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, FAIL-SAFE, SERPICO, 12 ANGRY MEN, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, THE PAWNBROKER, etc. Fucking hack.
Why FAMILY BUSINESS actually might be worth seeing is for the acting, which Lumet might know something about. I think he knew it was best to not bother concentrating on the mindless lightweight plot (along with a nonsensical third act twist) or even hinge his efforts on set-piece gags to salvage an unfunny "funny" gimmick. The humor comes from the acting chemistry as those three leads click in their constant bitching and busting each other's balls over every little petty thing. You know, like a family. I had genuinely great pleasure in watching them just work together even if "college senior" Broderick at this time was about 30, Connery is only 7 years older than Hoffman, and Hoffman is Jewish too nevermind.
Connery is the blue collar lifetime criminal, He's angry at son Hoffman for quitting the lifestyle to become a legitimate businessman. Connery bonds with spoiled brainiac grandson Broderick, who's pissed at daddy Hoffman for being very controlling...and boring. They bond together on the perfect robbery which of course doesn't go to plan. There are many little moments which made me laugh good. The passover dinner, them having to prowl the whole building to find this one room, the "proper Irish wake", the look Hoffman gives when Broderick forgot the gloves, Connery going shopping, quite many.
And this comes to mind how underrated Broderick is as an actor. He never gets any credit. Remember GLORY? Yeah exactly you think of Denzel and Morgan Freeman before you do Broderick, yet he gave a performance just as good as they did. I've never read a YOU CAN COUNT ON ME review where he wasn't an afterthought for the critic. Fuckers. His work in WARGAMES is underrated, even by the fans. Is it because he did comedies like FERRIS BUELLER or that THE PRODUCERS remake? Was it because people refuse to see him as anything more than well a kid? Hell in FAMILY BUSINESS he was playing a college senior, yet he was about 30 at the time. OK he's sorry about GODZILLA I'm sure.
I think alot of folks got lost when the movies shifts from comedy to a melodrama, but I liked it. I was impressed that under the surface Lumet was trying to show that beyond the manipulative narrative...Connery and Broderick are really unlikealbe assholes if you think about it. You have this one scene where some woman is boasting about her unethical (but totally legal) against tenants, and Connery goes ballistic on her. Hey dude I'm with you here and all, but you don't exactly have the high moral perch here. Then Broderick who whines about how Hoffman never let him "live" by not allowing him to be a petty crook. Man fuck you kid.
If anything, Hoffman is painted here as the wet pants pussy for refusing to give in to his illegal tendencies (cheated taxes aside), but he's really the good guy. He didn't want to spend his life as a bum, went straight as a meatpacker making a honest paycheck. Hoffman goes ballistic on an embezzling employee (a young Luiz Guzman), Lumet makes him a legitimate ass kicker. Words I never expected to use to describe Rain Man...and he immediately regrets this action.And his dad calls him a lost cause.
He made sure that his seed didn't get stuck in the same vicious impoverish crime cycle as he was, even turning in his old man to save Broderick from a 20 year prison sentence by turning in pops. And the kid spits at him. Just poor Hoffman fails as a father and good role model is when he joins the burglary. Sure he claims he joined to keep an eye on the boy, and cops out that the (failed) heist was the most fun he's had in his life....but this isn't a good positive development if you ask me.
So yeah this is a good funny Lumet entry with some mustard. Not essential by any means, but I like that Lumet makes a solid surprisingly (somewhat) meaty movie when almost everyone else would probably not give a fuck enough to bother beyond the routine lack of ambitions. If this was remade now, it would be Al Pacino, Ben Stiller, and Zac Effron. You totally imagine that, can't ya? And man it would absolutely suck wouldn't it.