The Family Fang (2016)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Opening titles. Jason Bateman stands in a farm field, looking wary and bemused. He cringes, as he is shot in the face, in slow motion, by a potato gun. Now - raise your hand if you'd expect this to be accompanied by a freeze-frame, dinging sound effect, and dry Ron Howard narration quipping "Baxter Fang was having a bad day."* Yeah; me too. Sadly, The Family Fang, Bateman (doubling as director)'s adaptation of Kevin Wilson's ode to the emotional alienation of a dysfunctional family unable to extricate life from pretentious, avant garde performance art, has nothing so unconventional on its mind. Instead, it's an unrelentingly somber affair, lacking the playfulness and dark comedy of Wilson's novel, in favour of a wholly dour take on the destructiveness of art. Sure, any story of a family imploding is inherently melancholic, but eradicated are the sardonic moments of deadpan wry humour amidst calamity that Bateman, of all people, should consider second nature after his tenure with the Family Bluth. Instead, the entirety of The Family Fang is tinged with a greyish, 'rainy day' filter and accompanied by an austere tinkling piano, as if playing up their farcical performance art misadventures as high tragedy. Unfortunately, this austerity backfires, and, where the riffs of levity should help accentuate the emotional weight of the story, the incessant heaviness instead makes it all seem… well, a bit funny. This isn't to say The Family Fang is an overall poor film – it's capably written and shot, well-paced, including a couple of well-orchestrated twists along the way as the film flirts with the murder mystery genre in its second act, and a good bit with a crossbow. The Fangs' artistic incursions/chaotic guerilla public disturbances are fun, albeit a touch toothless (get it). Similarly, Bateman allows scenes to play with a relaxed naturalism that helps the cast sell some of their more constructed dialogue. It's just all so utterly joyless that even sequences with the sort of exquisitely cringeworthy setups that should play as uncomfortable comedy gold are simply a slog to trudge through. Even intercut sequences of pretentiously superfluous art critic banter critiquing the integrity of the Fang's work simply play as sullen rather than playfully scathing. And it's pretty clear that when Walken's Caleb Fang relentlessly pontificates on 'great art should make you feel things,' glum and restless was not what he had in mind.As the two children desperately trying to siphon through their baggage to carve out their own artistic careers (and functional lives) amidst their parents' warped shadows, Nicole Kidman and Bateman himself do give strong performances, Kidman's peppery indignation making a good foil against Bateman's timidly sarcastic resignation. Similarly, no one could be perfectly cast as the kooky but emotionally abusive Caleb Fang than Christopher Walken, but he's used so sparingly, and plays so caustically bitter the whole time, that his weirdness is too acidic to enjoy. Maryann Plunkett does bring a credible goofiness and impressively nuanced subtle sadness to his eccentric wife. Still, it's a shame, given the comedic potential of all involved, that Bateman sets the dial so firmly to melodrama, as, try as they might, the cast can't help but feel fairly wasted. There's a certain twisted irony in such a drably conventional take on pretentious artistic posturing that it's tempting to give Bateman the benefit of the doubt of pulling audiences' legs with a meta-critique. Still, even the most generously reflexive audiences will likely be too bummed out by the time the credits roll to properly navigate the onion skins of irony to care. It's a shame, as The Family Fang, on paper, has every facet of a worthwhile film in place - a valid lampooning of the boundaries, subjectivity, and value of art, as well as a sterling cast selling a more familiar retreading of how gosh-darn broken families can get. Still, it's inescapable: the film, beyond its capable moments, is obvious, emotionally forced, and resoundingly refuses to play with the boundaries of its art form. In short: it's everything the Fangs would despise. And this time, they may be on to something.-6.5/10*Oh COME on - clearly Bateman had Arrested Development on the brain enough to rebrand his character from the novel's Buster. Just sayin'.

Wow, weird one, this. For most part it's uninvolving and even sleep- inducing. And I wouldn't say it's put together successfully: too much empty talk and too little character development or concentrating on family dynamics.But it does raise interesting questions about how or why parents are to blame for shortfalls in their offsprings' later independent life. And the short but quite powerful finale does lift it somewhere higher than before. At least it did for me.The story is about adult brother and sister (Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman) not enjoying their adult existence and blaming parents for not raising them the proper way. But the latter (Christopher Walken, Maryann Plunkett) are lifelong controversial performance artists who claim that true art is more important than being like everybody else.I haven't read the successful 2011's novel by Kevin Wilson the movie is based on but Bateman, also directing, seemed to be struggling with the adaptation. Movie as a whole is in terrible need for some balancing. The scenes with parents are functional, thanks to evercool Walken. But the story concentrates mostly on adult children who are so devoid of charm or anything remotely interesting that may put me almost to sleep. Think "The Royal Tenenbaums" but without the fun parts or unique voice of Wes Anderson.I am not sure what is it with Kidman and Bateman. They both can be really cool given some good material but they rarely manage to find something worthwhile. This is not the good project their fans have been looking for.

Sadness. Sadness so absolute it is punishing.This is the best way I can describe what watching the inexorably depressing drama "The Family Fang" feels like virtually from start to finish. Jason Bateman is quite good in his role as we have become accustomed to seeing from the gifted actor. Bateman also doubles as Director here, and he certainly shows some intriguing promise for the future behind the camera. This is also in my opinion one of the best performances I have ever seen Nicole Kidman deliver. And I've seen her perform a lot.Regrettably, none of this outstanding work can rescue "The Family Fang" from the chokehold of despondency which this wretched story relentlessly strangles us with. Ultimately what we are saddled with is a misery-drenched tale of two parents (Christopher Walken and Maryann Plunkett) who regard their young children as little more than compliant pawns in a twisted game of self-aggrandizement and perverse gratification. And all in the name of obliterating the boundaries of "performance art".It is child abuse that these two sinister souls inflict upon their own flesh and blood. Nothing else. It is abjectly despicable.And it is so VERY sad.

To all those "artistes" out there I will surely offend but to the common man who watches movies for some, just some redeeming value this is not a movie for you. Weak plot line, poor humor (certainly not a comedy as billed), the type of movie the pretentious "critics" will submit as Oscar material, when nothing could be further from the truth. A movie should entertain in some way shape or form. That "entertainment" can be measured by it's ability to move you emotionally in some way; cry, laugh, fear, anger, anxiety (suspense), etc. etc. If a movie can't move you emotionally in any direction to me it is not entertaining. This movie barely moves you to think. This movie fails in ALL categories. "Art" ... my foot!