Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
This Is Where I Leave You was one of the season’s most hotly anticipated films. It’s based on a beloved novel by Jonathan Tropper and boasts an all-star cast that includes Jason Bateman, Jane Fonda, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll, and Adam Driver. It had a winsome trailer that promised to tug on all of our heartstrings. It was supposed to be one of the big Fall releases and potential Oscar bait. Then, it opened to tepid reviews at the Toronto Film Festival. Since then, it’s been written off as a possible contender for Best Picture.
Exactly one year ago something similar happened: insiders were eagerly anticipating the release of August: Osage County. It was another family reunion film that featured a dysfunctional family coming together to cope with the death of a patriarch. The cast included Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Margot Martindale, Ewan McGregor, and Benedict Cumberbatch. It was produced by George Clooney. People expected it to be a slam-dunk at awards season. The problem, though, was that it was a sloppy and melodramatic film that had very little of the emotional punch of the play on which it was based.
Don’t get me wrong: I love me a good, juicy family reunion flick. I personally have a very big soft spot for the messy and well-meaning 2005 Christmas family dramedy/romantic comedy, The Family Stone, because my own sprawling Irish Catholic family watches it together at Christmas. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was very good as a down-and-out Oakie in August: Osage County. I will still probably go and see This Is Where I Leave You — and I expect that I’ll recommend it on the strength of individual performances. But let’s not kid ourselves. As riveting and tense as family relations can get, it’s insanely tricky to translate that natural drama onto the big screen. When I polled my Decider co-workers to see if they could think of any big family reunion films that were actually good, they could only think of one: The Royal Tenenbaums.
Big family reunion films should be no-brainers. you’ve got a bunch of disparate personalities forced to love each other because of nature and nuture. There’s going to be natural tension and years of deep-rooted drama to exploit. So, why is it so hard to make a family reunion film that’s good? We have some ideas…
1) These Films Have Too Many Characters. Oof. It’s hard enough for most films to give us one protagonist with a fully-formed backstory that we care about. The big family reunion films try to give us about a dozen. It’s not enough to focus on two parents with two grown kids and maybe one spouse. Each of these dysfunctional families are massive. I come from a larger family, so I get it. However, that means that you have to spend a great deal of time introducing every individual character so that the audience not only cares about them, but so the viewer can comprehend where each person fits in the family’s tableau.
2) These Films Have Too Much Drama. This goes hand-in-hand with the “too many characters” thing. See, the more people there are in a family, the more drama there typically is. It’s utterly fascinating how people keep up petty feuds from their childhood well into their adulthood, but unless you understand what the backstory is, it basically looks like two siblings sniping each other because one can’t get over the fact that the other got a stuffed rabbit. It’s stupid. You can’t really relate. Not only that, but if a film is focused on a lot of mini feuds and squabbles, then that film is sacrificing having a central focus.
3) These Films Have Too Many Clichés. Because there are so many characters to juggle, most big family reunion films don’t even try to make the characters or their backstories original. Everyone fits a tried and true cliché. One of the parents is always dead or dying. One of the parents is also responsible for every other character’s personal issues. All of the adult children fit a specific type: There’s the responsible one who went off to the big city and did well, the responsible one who stayed home, the one who never grew up, the one we don’t really care about… Oh, and there’s always some kind of flirtation between at least one of the adult children and a former childhood or high school flame.
Put these three major mistakes together and you get movies that are boring and schlocky messes.
So, why does The Royal Tenenbaums hold up? Well, for one thing, it’s made by celebrated auteur, Wes Anderson.
Anderson is smart. He doesn’t just set up soft lighting and a single camera around a crowed dinner table. He sets up shots and created art design that tells us who the characters are as people and who they are in relation to each other without words. Furthermore, he defies cliché by using specifics. Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) isn’t just a celebrated playwright in an unhappy marriage. She lost a finger, has a hidden smoking habit, and spends her days in a bathtub watching a television set that’s tied to a radiator. Her middle name is Helen.
Also, the film has a clear anti-hero: Royal Tenenbaum. The film never loses sight of the fact that he is the one who has instigated this reunion through his own selfish machinations. He sets the plot in motion and the plot centers around him.
Most of all, Anderson knows that no one’s family is interesting on its own. You need context. You need control. You need plot. Otherwise, we may as well just film our next big holiday dinners at home, put it on the Internet uncut, and call it a movie. Family drama alone does not a great film drama make.
Stream The Family Stone [GoWatchIt], The Royal Tenenbaums [GoWatchIt], and August: Osage County [GoWatchIt]. This Is Where I Leave You opens nationwide in theaters this Friday, September 19. Call your mother. She probably just wants to talk.
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Photo Credit: Everett Collection
