Families (2015) User Reviews

PRETTY - AWFUL

[MadamWarden · 3/10 · 12 January 2020]

Overly long French "romcom" that is neither funny nor romantic. Elderly rat-like man cheats on his gorgeous young fiance with an even more gorgeous younger daughter of his dead father's mistress.

Convoluted, miscast, ridiculous mess with some terrible acting and infantile plot.

Some gorgeous locations and stunning female cast make it pretty, but vacuous viewing

What Were They Thinking!

[kirrosh-724-26248 · 2/10 · 14 September 2015]

Famillies (Belles Familles) has been my greatest TIFF 2015 disappointment, so far. I attended the world premiere last night expecting at least an average film, given the names behind the film. Alas, this was a disappointment on many levels. The film was formulaic to say the least. It is clear that Rappeneau was hoping for commercial success with this half baked film, as it appears to have been created to appeal to the masses with convenient unrealistic turns of events that favour the main protagonists. The character development leaves much to be desired. Mathieu Amalric is usually a great actor. It is hard to understand why he would have chosen this role. Louise played by Marine Vacth was understandably gorgeous, but extremely unlikeable.It was hard to understand why the filmmaker expected us to sympathize with her and to root for her. Perhaps, being beautiful is all that matters in France. I did not care about any of the characters by the end of the film and that is a big deal because I tend to have an almost pathological propensity to care about anything and everything, including fictional characters. Me not caring is a huge accomplishment on the filmmaker's part, albeit not in a good way.

The film illustrates infidelity as one of the greatest manifestations of love. This is over-simplistic, tiresome and disrespectful to the intelligence of audiences. Moreover, the final outcome of the film is quite racist, if one were to take a step back and put the narrative in perspective (There were other hints of racism earlier in the film, so this did not come as a complete surprise).

If you're going to TIFF 2015: Do NOT see this film! If you already have a ticket for one of its screenings, do yourself a favour and exchange it, before it's too late and you waste almost 2 precious hours of your life that you won't be getting back. Watching this yesterday was an excruciating experience. I cringed for most of it and barely managed to sit through it.

Could have been a lot better...

[Nobody-27 · 3/10 · 17 February 2018]

When I first watched this film, in French only with no subtitles, I thought that my French got a little rusty because many things did not make sense. Then, I watched it again, this time with subtitles. Good news: my French is not rusty. Bad news: the film makes no sense, or very little sense. Even the genre is hard to pin: it feels like it may be a comedy, or romantic comedy with quite a bit of drama... or... I don't know. Then there is a plot which revolves around a house that should/could be inherited by more than one person... all made more complicated by machinations of various individuals. But, even that part does not make much sense (cannot go into details without it being a spoiler). And then, finally, we are supposed to believe that people just fall in love, because, you know, it helps move the story forward. Too bad, because there were a few decent scenes and overall, performances were quite good. But the essence of this film is simple put - poor. Not believable, not engaging. In the end, the film left me completely indifferent. At least actors were good. That's the reason I did not give it 1 star but 3.

Excellent film with a well woven story

[yhchan-56479 · 10/10 · 2 July 2020]

I enjoyed this film very much. Kept me in suspense from beginning to end, very much like reading an unputdownable book. A very cleverly woven plot with twists and turns and everything ends well. Although comedic it could happen in real life!

Worst ever !

[pebrok1 · 1/10 · 20 December 2020]

Take all the stereotypes of a French movie, shake with a bunch a good French actors, add a heavy hand of bad scenario, and you have it. How was this movie ever released?

Pathetic

[cedricballet · 1/10 · 14 July 2020]

Ridiculous plot, ridiculous characters, amator level acting

save your time, move on

French modern vaudeville

[christellecellier · 4/10 · 16 February 2024]

Hard to believe it was not a movie meant for television... If it weren't for its famous actors, this film would have absolutely nothing to show for itself. Marine Vacht is as beautiful as always and I managed to go through this boring and predictable « navet » because of her. Otherwise, move along, there is nothing to see.

In the end the French guy ends up with the French girl and the gorgeous but scorned Chinese woman falls for the Chinese guy that you get to see less than one minute. I would not go as far as to say the script was racist but it is terribly devoid of any imagination and originality. But all is well and ends well. Justice will prevail and order is restored. A very forgettable story.