The Family Fang

Bad-parent movies are a popular comedy genre that laughs at parents for not being perfect. The drama, thriller or horror versions are more about exploring the dark side of family life and the damage that adults inflict on their young. The offbeat satire The Family Fang (2015) has its funny moments but this is not a comedy. It is a portrait of psychological abuse conducted by parents in the name of art with sinister undercurrents always beneath the surface.

Internationally renowned Caleb Fang (Christopher Walken) and his wife Camille (Maryanne Plunkett) are performance artists dedicated to disrupting the conventions of normality. They stage impromptu happenings in public places simply to witness the sublime beauty of the resulting chaos. Their children Annie (Nicole Kidman) and Baxter (Jason Bateman) have been used as performance props since they were born and their adult lives bear the scars of parenting based on artifice and deception. As youngsters they busked a song "kill all parents so you can keep living" just to get crowd reactions, but they could not foresee the truth in the lyrics nor how their parents would control their lives into adulthood.

The story unfolds backwards with Annie and Baxter at their parent's empty home searching for clues to explain the sudden and violent of disappearance of Caleb and Camille. Police believe the worst but the siblings believe it is just another stunt. While trawling through videos and other memorabilia, they see their lives paraded before them. They realise that they have always been exploited and are victims of unresolved psychological abuse. Through flashbacks, they can see Caleb as a violent personality and Camille as meekly compliant while family gatherings were tension-filled events under Caleb's domination. When the siblings question the value of the performances the reaction is pure menace.

This is a dysfunctional family in both obvious and implied ways, and the film keeps us guessing whether the knotted ball can ever be untangled. The four characters are well defined with strong and believable performances, and the conflicts between young and old are frighteningly recognisable as the kind of things that happen in both normal and transgressive families. When Caleb says "parents damage kids, so what" it sends a shiver down your spine to realise that some people are not psychologically equipped to be parents. Annie and Baxter must confront the fact that letting their parents go may the only way to grow up. This is an original take on an age-old story that is also provocative and engaging.

This film tells the story of two siblings of behavioural artists Caleb and Camille, who have to play along to their parents cruel and traumatic pranks. After they grow up, they continue to deal with issues regarding the past, and even bigger issues in the present.

Wow. I have not expected the story to be so engaging and engrossing. It draws me in because it provokes people to think what is art and what is not art. I feel so sad for the siblings because their childhood years are traumatised repeatedly by the parents. The ending is intense and evokes much feelings in me. I liked "The Family Fang" and I would undoubtedly recommend others to watch it.

This is a very good work of fiction, well represented on the screen by Jason Bateman (who starred and directed it) and his stellar cast.

It's the story of a unusual family: you will find the story truly original, not only in its premises or in the sequence of events but also because in the end you'll be left without any moral teaching: everything will seem possible and acceptable.

I found it interesting but, to be sincere, not really catching or entertaining. If you are looking for a Comedy I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. If you think you are going to watch a drama you'll probably find it poorly moving. If you want to see something original, on the contrary, you could be satisfied I guess.

This Be The Verse, by Philip Larkin, opens with the lines: "They f*ck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do." The Family Fang is basically an exploration of that thesis. The parents of two damaged individuals go missing. The siblings come together to try and find them, one believing they have fallen foul of serial killers, the other thinking this is another prank in a long line of stunts their parents are famous for. All the actors do credible turns, but the themes could be explored more deeply. The revelation that the father never wanted children should impact much more heavily than it does. The waning career of Kidman's actor character seems a slight and peripheral concern. Bateman's near death-by-potato is funny, but doesn't resonate to a deeper malaise. The film carries the comedy well, but the darkness is less truthful and engaging. A spotty film, with bright moments, but I wanted more than it delivered.

Abstract

The Family Fang is a certainly strange and intriguing film and not lacking in complexity and interest that reflects on the relationship between art and reality and the deep traces that the artistic narcissism of a father leaves on his children.

Review

During their childhood and adolescence, the Fang brothers participated in "interventions" or performances in public places devised and filmed by their parents. As adults, Annie and Baxter (Nicole Kidman and Jason Bateman), she an actress with an uncertain career and he, a blocked writer, meet them again and must face an unprecedented situation.

The Family Fang is a certainly strange and intriguing film and not lacking in complexity and interest. Two brothers marked by artistic narcissism and the manipulations of their father Caleb (a fearsome and relaxed Christopher Walken), the concessions of a surrendering mother (Maryann Plunkett) and a precocious and unconscious celebrity.

I'm talking about complexity because the ensemble that the director Jason Bateman also makes of the story in the present, flashbacks of the interventions in the past, videos of those interventions and the inclusion of false reports is effective and at times they bring the film closer to mockumentary and reality.

And I speak of interest because the film's explicit and implicit reflections on the relationships between art and reality are understandable, even if they are permeated by Caleb's debatable subjectivity.

Although the development of the story and some decisions or behaviors of the characters may seem forced or implausible, I believe that they must in part be understood based on the deep marks of family history and their artistic creed on the perception of reality and interaction with she.

Finally, it is worth highlighting the performances of the infallible Kidman, Bateman, Plunkett and the great Christopher Walken.