The Family Tree (2011)

Strong and Moving!

i must have seen a different film!!

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

What a little freak thing is this movie! A weird family goes through a difficult time when the mothers gets a relative amnesia. Father is a turning-a-blind-eye man; mother is unfaithful and has a creepy fetish involving bandits; sister is an annoying and arrogant teenager that seems to overrate sex, whilst her brother is virgin and religious. There isn't much to expect about this story, considering there isn't a single enjoyable character. Also, sometimes the film feels tiresome. One of the few good things about it is the way writers portray religious fanaticism, using some ironical elements to make it's portrait. Kinda original story, but bad picture anyways.

"The Family Tree" is the hopelessly misleading title of a frighteningly misanthropic would-be comedy that pretends to be a clever, black satire on modern day family values and American culture. But instead of provoking guilty laughs along with sharp insights, the horrifyingly television-esque picture defies its own intentions and produces anger as opposed to wit. And I can only imagine that if anybody can find the kindness in themselves to laugh at it, then they must really be feeling guilty.Basically, if you are white, black, married, single, religious, anti-religious, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, on drugs, anti-drugs, studious, rebellious, blue-collar, white-collar - a human being, in other words - the picture holds you with the absolute lowest of regard. The movie centers on a family, not a family tree, and their dopey neighbors and associates. It opens with a laughless scene of the family visiting a shrink, then goes to a high school peeping tom climbing into a tree at night, spying into the family's window and the wife's chest while masturbating. A squirrel startles him, he slips, gets the loop of the binoculars around his neck, and hangs himself.Yes, he dies.While he decomposes in the tree, we follow the rest of the characters. The wife gives herself amnesia while having sex with the nextdoor neighbor, the hypocritical religious son starts doing drugs while simultaneously developing a crush on a homosexual classmate, a neighbor finds himself associate with a couple of black hip-robbers. Oh, by the way, these are just a few of the numerous subplots that attempt to provide some dark insights of American life.It's trying to be a picture like "30 Minutes or Less," a much-superior film released earlier this year. Neither film holds its audience with very high regard. So what is the difference between the two pictures and why is one a modestly successful and entertaining film with some laughs and insights and the other a sprawling, anger-inducing mess. The answer, I think, is that "30 Minutes or Less" had the wits and the courage to acknowledge what it was and play its satirical elements to a hilt. That way when I laughed at its black comic moments, I was feeling guilty for laughing at it, but being able to forgive myself because at the same time, the movie was offering some wicked and fascinating insights about contemporary culture and lifestyles."The Family Tree" only offers pseudo-insights. It never comes full term with what it is or what it wants to be or what it should be, and sparks anger as opposed to insights and laughs. Add to that some shoddy performance and a horrifically lamefooted directing style and the picture really bogs down. The movie is crammed with uncomfortably overpopulated close-ups and cheesy lighting reminiscent of dopey television comedies, not surprising seeing as how its director, Vivi Friedman, came from that field. The picture is just about an hour and a half long and it feels twice that length because it is so joylessly inept. Its specialty is not in providing information or laughs, but jolts of anger and groaning.

Very funny with lots of quirks. This is a truly dark comedy about a dysfunctional family that patches itself back together again after the mom (Hope Davis) suffers a bout of amnesia after falling in the bathroom during an affair with her neighbor. The whole family has issues, and they start to put everything behind them when they see how destructive their family has become.Dermot and Hope do a great job. Definitely worth going to see. A wonderful ensemble cast that works very well together. Max Theriot and JP Amedori are breakout stars in the making. Most of these actors play against type, which makes it even funnier. Great music and wonderful dialog. Definitely worth seeing. We were laughing in the edit bay! Beautifully shot and directed. Watch for Christina Hendricks-she is a hoot!

This movie is a pleasant surprise, with a great cast and a "Twin Peaks" sense of weirdness underneath the veneer of suburbia. Hope Davis is a bored, bitchy housewife who pours her energy into fund raisers for ridiculous causes and a kinky affair with her neighbor. Her daughter is the school slut, her son is a mixed up Jesus freak misfit with an unexpected gift for target shooting and her husband, Dermot Mulroney, is in a dead end job trying to please a boss he hates. It all turns into a crazy do-over when wifey hits her head during one of her sexual escapades and wakes up with amnesia. Gang bangers, a football star literally caught with his pants down and a dope smoking priest (played to the hilt by Keith Carradine)all figure in to a madcap climax. "Family Tree" is a gem, don't miss it.