Familia (2005) User Reviews

Not your typical familia...but a seering look at the reality of families today

[inkblot11 · 8/10 · 1 September 2006]

Michele, a woman with a severe gambling addiction, must flee her home with her teenage daughter. Owing a great deal of money to a former boyfriend, she seeks a new venue rather than face up to her debts. Her first choice of shelter is her mother's house but complications arise when her mother's male companion makes advances to Michele. Where to go? Well, what about the mansion of childhood friend Janine? Janine, an uptight matron of two children, feels compelled to help her longtime friend. Perhaps she needs some company herself, due to her husband's frequent business trips. Janine has a lovely daughter near in age to Michele's Marguerite. However, they are not similar at all. Marguerite stays out at parties into the A.M. while Janine's daughter is sheltered and timid. Nevertheless, the two become friends, just as the mothers maintain some sort of connection, too. However, Michele borrows money to gamble, Marguerite is a girl in trouble, and Janine, reaching out in friendship to a lady in town, learns a miserable secret about her husband. No one here, it seems, gets out alive and happy. This seering film has a provocative nature, it's true, but it also shines a great deal of light on the reality of the human condition today.All the players turn in fine, fine acting performances. Michele seems to be caught in a web of a modern entrapment while Janine, too, has gambled on a comfortable life that comes with an absentee husband. The daughters, typical rebellious teenagers who both love and loathe their mothers, reach out to each other for hugs and support in the treacherous young adult world, complete with date rape drugs and no role models. This is not a pretty world, despite Janine's lovely environs of house, garden, and swimming pool. In the milieu of modern society, for some, there may be no fairytale opportunities. Or, have they themselves banished the chances for their own best interests? This daring film is not for those who want to see the world as all sweetness and light but rather for viewers who want to invite discussion of modern issues and problems. As food for thought, this movie qualifies as a feast.

Incroyable!!!

[dctrevett · 10/10 · 14 March 2006]

This is how they made them in the 70's, the golden era of film-making, in my opinion. No easy answers. No resolution. The ending packs a wallop, unlike few I have seen. More questions than answers. Real people, real life unfolding before you. Unflinching emotions. Through most of the film, I thought Sylvie Moreau was giving the knockout performance. Then Macha Grenon blindsided me with her power in the final quarter. Everyone should see this, but unfortunately, because it is not a mainstream American film, it will not be seen by nearly enough of us. Bravo to everyone involved. I haven't seen C.R.A.Z.Y. yet, and I will this weekend, but it will have to be incredible to be better than this one, at least for me.

A movie industry that gets better, a new movie that comes out of this!

[lpcn007 · 9/10 · 30 September 2005]

Familia is a shocking movie that analyse problems families are having in 2005. Missing mother without any money, infidel and greedy father, easily influenced child in crisis, everything is there. It is so actual that some people won't appreciate this movie for its own value because they won't take a necessary step back to see the importance of the problem. This movie is the first movie picture for Louise Archambault but she had only done a short movie called Atomic Sake in 1999. That movie is the beginning of a nice career for her. André Turpin's Wife (Un Crabe Dans la Tête, 2001) was great at directing perfectly the actresses and actors in this movie.

The movie is the story of Michèle (Sylvie Moreau) and her daughter Marguerite (Mylène St-Sauveur) who are moving in Janine's house who has 2 children. Right at the beginning, Janine (Macha Grenon) knows that Michèle is an compulsive and happy person and that her daughter Marguerite will have a bad influence on her own child, Gabrielle (Juliette Gosselin). But she trusts the story of Michèle when she told her that she is hiding from her manipulative husband and that she will move to California when she will have enough money. Janine will find a terrible truth about her her husband, Charles (Vincent Graton), who is isn't as good as the other ones. No one is perfect, and this story shows both sides of the story.

Familia is a movie worth seeing. If he would have been filmed in 2015, it would have thought about the life of people in 2005 and all their secrets. In other words, it has been out at right moment!

Wow

[WilliamCKH · 9/10 · 1 August 2010]

This is a really excellent movie, centered around the lives of two women and their children. It starts off very slowly...and builds.. and builds... until finally at the end it explodes. The scope of the film is huge, touching on issues such as addiction, motherhood in the modern age, sexuality, marriage, infidelity, family relationships...etc ..of the lies we live with, the lies we tell ourselves, the games we play with our own lives in relationship with the lives of others. The situations are complex, disturbingly so, with no real answers other than holding on tight those we love.. I wish I could describe it better,... just watch it for yourself.