Ralph's Movie Reviews: FAMILIA

Friday, September 23, 2005

FAMILIA

Drama
In French with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Sylvie Moreau: Michèle, an aerobics instructor and a single mother
Mylène St-Sauveur: Marguerite (aka Margot) her 14-year-old daughter
Macha Grenon: Janine, Michèle’s friend, mother of two and an accomplished interior designer
Juliette Gosselin: Janine's 12-year old daughter Gabrielle (aka Gaby)

REVIEW
The title roughly translates as “being with one’s family” and that pretty well describes what the movie is all about. Although there are many issues here, the main theme is essentially this: the way we act mirrors how we were brought up. Two mothers with dissimilar beliefs and values, cope with life’s many problems and we see how this impacts their lives and that of people around them.

CLASSIFICATION

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
While looking for a certain colour of drapes, Janine tentatively approaches a house while holding her handbag in her right hand. When the house’s occupant opens the door to inquire what she is doing, Janine waves a greeting with her right hand since somehow the handbag jumped over to her left hand.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.