Family Weekend (2013)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Brilliant and touching

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Initially you want to feel sorry for the lead character Emily but then as I kept watching I realised the whole family are just as selfish as each other. They all have their own interests and ignore each other. That being said, as the movie progresses you start to see the deep underlying issues of each character and you truly realise how much of a dysfunctional family they have become. Their issues run far too deep to be fixed in one enlightened moment.Funnily this movie is so much more than you could have imagined. It's weird and crazy, traumatic and depressing but through it all they get there. So while it started out strange it developed into a really decent movie that I'm glad I watched.

It's not the first movie to turn a "hostile" situation into a funny one. But it still is able to remain kind of sweet and almost innocent. Obviously a few factors come into play that other movies were not able to use (the internet) and some other stuff. There are some interesting influences coming from outside the family circle (friends, co-workers and more).The movie is funny, but has some logic issues. Then again, if you really buy into the movie (with its flaws) you will be able to enjoy a funny movie, that goes a bit dark (the young sister channeling some classic movies), but never loses the viewer with any sort of violence. For all its "dark" moments, it still might feel a bit too neat for some in the end, but it does pull the whole thing off

I found this on Netflix streaming movies. I watched it on a rainy morning just to kill time, expecting it to be a "dumb" comedy but came away somewhat amazed how good it is. Each role is acted just right and the situations are always surprising and interesting. This is a nice little gem of a movie.A movie like this thrives or dies on the lead role, and Olesya Rulin is just perfect as 16-yr-old Emily, even though the actress is in her mid-20s. Tiny at 5 feet tall, and with a youthful face and big eyes like Zooey Deschanel, her acting style fits the part.Emily is an organized person and as the movie starts she is getting ready to compete in the sport that is her passion, solo speed jump rope. She places first at the regional, in her home area in Michigan, but in spite of the post-it note reminders she left for her mom, her dad, her sister, and her two brothers, none of her family showed up to see her compete.Most 16-yr-olds would just mope, maybe take drugs, maybe tell everyone how uncaring her family is, but Emily is not your usual 16-yr-old. She decides an intervention is called for so she prepares an evening meal, forces each family member to sit at the table, then spikes the wine of her parents. When they pass out she does the only sensible thing, she ties them to chairs, making them her prisoners until they can all get a better understanding and commitment to making their family work better as a unit. Kristin Chenoweth is the hard-working, driven business woman Samantha. Matthew Modine is the hippy-dippy artist Duncan who has his studio upstairs in the home. Emily's younger sister is Joey King as Lucy, who is always dressing up as some movie character, but she is delightful. For me it was fun seeing one of my favorites from an earlier generation, Shirley Jones as the grandma, "GG ".This is a very funny comedy with novel writing, but it also has a good core of a message, that family members listening to each other and doing important things together matters.

A precocious teen girl attempts to save her family from their individually separated, self-absorbed paths. The plot centers around her jump roping competitions. After she informs everyone, and no one attends her meet, she goes to drastic measures to involve everyone in a share all, confess all roulette of spirited collisions to bring attention to the distance between them. With both wit and playfulness, this film goes in so many directions and covers so many topics of the modern American family. I was smiling at the drama, laughing at the absurdity, and sympathizing with each character as they were pressed to change their hearts and views. I give this two thumbs up with 5 star performances all around. The content is edgy but handled well. Bravo!